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TEN  YEAHS 


ON 


THE    EUPHRATES; 

i  OR, 

*      PEnilTKE  MISSIONARY  TOLICY  ILLUSTRATED. 

BY  REV.  C.  n.  WHEELER, 

MISSIONARY     IN     3SASTEKN    TURKEY. 

WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION 
BY    REV.    N.    G.    CLARK,    D.D., 

COR.   SEC.  A.  B.   C.   V.  M. 


Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature. 
—  Mark  xvi.  15. 

Upon  this  rock  will  I  build  my  church,  and  the  gates  of  hell  shall 
not  prevail  against  it.  —  Matt,  xvi.^8. 


PtJBLISnED   BY  THE 

AMERICAN    TRACT    SOCIETY, 
1C4  Tkemont  St.,  Boston. 


Entered  according  to  act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  18G8,  by 
THE    AMEKICAN    TRACT    SOCIETY, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of 
Massachusetts. 


TO 

MY      MOTHER, 

WHO,    FROM    MY   EARLIEST  YEARS, 

LED  ME  TO  THE  PRAYER-MEETING  AND  THE  MONTHLY 

CONCERT,  AND   THUS   TO   CHRLST   AND   AN 

INTEREST    IN    MISSIONS, 


THEN,  IN   HER  AGE  AND  WIDOWHOOD,  SENT  ME 
TO  THE   FOREIGN   FIELD, 

THIS   VOLUME   IS   INSCRIBED. 


1  Gt  G5'--^ 


INTRODUCTION. 

The  volume  liere  offered  to  the  Christian  public 
is  a  record  of  faith,  toil,  and  success  in  the  mission- 
ary work.  The  many  who  have  had  the  pleasure 
of  listening  to  Mr.  Wheeler  will  enjoy  a  more  full 
exhibition  of  the  work  in  which  he  has  been  en- 
gaged than  it  was  possible  for  him  to  give  in  a  sin- 
gle address.  The  larger  number  who  have  not 
heard  him  will  gladly  welcome  from  his  pen  such 
an  account  of  the  actual  method  pursued  and  the 
progress  made  in  the  evangelization  of  eastern 
Turkey. 

One  of  the  greatest  wants  of  our  churches  is  a 
clear,  definite  notion  of  the  missionary  work.  To 
many  minds  the  evangelization  of  the  world  is  so 
nearly  impossible  —  impossible  at  least  within  any 
limited  period  —  as  to  have  but  slight  hold  upon 
their  Christian  sympathies.  To  labor  for  it  is  a 
duty,  to  be  sure,  because  commanded  by  our  Lord, 

V 


VI  INTR  O  D  UCTION. 

and  its  realization  some  day  is  a  proper  object  of 
faitli  and  prayer,  because  promised  in  revelation ; 
but,  as  compared  with  the  more  immediate  calls  to 
Christian  effort  at  home,  it  is  too  remote  to  stir  the 
heart,  and  prompt  to  earnest,  prayerful  labor  and 
sacrifice  to  brincf  it  about. 

This  little  volume  will  do  much  to  supply  this 
want.  It  sets  forth  by  precept  and  abundant  illus- 
tration the  object  and  method  of  the  missionary 
enterprise.  It  is  an  earnest,  practical  work,  by  an 
earnest,  practical  man.  It  presents  just  those  facts 
which  a  practical  man  wants  to  know,  because  he 
is  enabled  by  them  to  see  just  what  the  work  is, 
how  it  is  done,  and  to  be  done,  in  order  to  the 
evangelization  of  the  world.  No  thoughtful  man 
can  rise  from  its  perusal  without  new  faith  in  the 
power  of  the  gospel,  and  new  hope  of  its  speedy 
and  final  triumph.  The  problem  is  no  longer  im- 
practicable or  impossible,  or  remote  of  solution. 
The  economy  of  men  and  means  here  illustrated 
will  be  a  surprise  even  to  most  who  claim  to  be 
familiar  with  the  history  of  missions ;  while  the 
results  attained  will  furnish  most  unmistakable 
evidence  of  the  presence  and  power  of  our  Lord 
fulfilling  the  promise  coupled  with  his  last  com- 
mand. 


INTRODUCTION.  VU 

In  this  view,  this  volume  is  a  most  valuable  con- 
tribution to  the  current  missiouaiy  literature  of 
the  time.  It  is  a  full,  faithful  exhibition  of  the 
apostolic  method  of  conducting  missions.  It  showa 
that  the  method  of  the  apostles  is  the  true  method 
for  our  time;  that  the  object  of  the  missionary  en- 
terprise is  not  to  introduce  civilization,  to  Anglicize 
or  Americanize  other  nations,  not  to  transfer  the 
entire  system  of  civilization  and  culture  which  the 
gospel  has  developed  among  us,  but  to  introduce 
the  gospel  itself,  as  the  divinely-appointed  means 
for  the  regeneration  of  all  nations.  It  is  then  to 
be  left  to  work  out  its  le<2;itimate  results  in  the 
social  and  moral  elevation  of  those  who  receive  it, 
in  accordance  with  their  peculiar  intellectual  and 
moral  endowments.  The  essential  thing  to  be  ac- 
complished by  missionary  labor  is  "to  plant  the 
Christian  church,  and  to  set  its  members  at  work 
for  Cln-ist." 

"Men  from  America  and  England,"  says  our  au- 
thor, "  can  never  do  all  the  Christian  work  neces- 
sary to  tlie  complete  evangelization  of  the  heathen 
world.  The  churches  of  Asia,  Africa,  and  the 
islands  of  the  sea,  must,  and  can,  and  will  do  it,  if 
we  only  establish  them  with  this  end  in  view." 

"Whatever  else  we  may  do,  however  many  in- 


Vni  INTRODUCTION. 

dividual  souls  we  may  save,  our  missionary  worls 
will  be  little,  if  any,  better  than  a  failure,  if  we  fail 
to  plant  such  cliurclies.  In  saying  that  the  work 
is  a  failure,  I  do  not  mean  that  those  who  give  to 
the  different  nations  the  Bible  in  their  own  tonijues 
make  a  failure.  Tins  work  may  be  well,  nobly 
done,  and  much  other  incidental  good  be  accom- 
plished.' That  Bible  may  be  put  into  the  hands 
of  many  persons,  and  general  knowledge  of  Chris- 
tian duty  be  disseminated,  which,  if  wisely  directed 
to  its  proper  ends,  would  result  in  still  greater 
good ;  but  in  the  failure  to  secure  the  great,  the  sin- 
gle ultimate  aim  of  missionary  efforts,  —  the  plant- 
ing of  an  independent,  self-sustaining,  self-propa- 
gating Christianity, — these  incidental  benefits  can 
no  more  be  cited  as  evidence  of  success  than  could 
the  roads  made  and  the  canals  dug  by  our  armies 
in  the  South  be  adduced  as  evidence  of  success,  if 
those  armies  had  failed  to  put  down  the  rebellion." 

It  is  the  exhibition  of  this  method  in  all  its 
practical  details,  clearly  apprehended  and  steadily 
pursued  through  mary  trials  and  difficulties,  for  a 
period  of  ten  years,  and  vindicated  at  last  by  re- 
markable successes,  that  gives  such  a  value  to  this 
volume  at  the  present  time. 

To  evangelize  a  region  of  country  larger  than 


INTRODUCTION.  IX 

the  State  of  Massachusetts,  covered  with  huridrecls 
of  villages  and  cities,  with  a  population  of  from 
four  to  five  hundred  thousand  souls,  speaking  three 
different  languages, — this  was  the  work  undertaken 
by  three  married  missionaries,  assisted  a  part  of 
the  time  by  one  single  lady  in  a  female  boarding- 
school.  They  entered  upon  it  in  humble  reliance 
upon  Bible  truth,  the  blessing  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  the  presence  of  their  great  Leader.  They  made 
Harpoot  the  base  of  their  operations ;  selected  fit 
centers  for  influence  amid  the  surrounding  villa- 
ges, set  up  schools,  and  put  young  men  of  promise 
upon  special  training  to  become  preachers  and 
teachers,  gathered  believers  into  churches,  ordained 
jiastors  over  them,  and  taught  the  people  to  sup- 
port their  own  Christian  institutions,  and  to  engage 
vigorously  in  the  Avork  of  home  evangelization ; 
till  now,  with  the  addition  of  the  Arabkir  field, 
their  work  is  represented  by  thirteen  churches,  — 
six  of  them  entirely  independent,  —  by  sixty-six 
towns  and  cities  in  which  the  gospel  is  preaclied, 
by  seventy-eight  native  preachers  and  pastors,  by 
thousands  of  men  and  women  reading  the  word  of 
God  in  their  own  language,  and  by  thousands  more 
of  children  and  youth  gathered  into  schools ;  in  a 
word,  by  the  foundations  of  a  Christ! in  civilization 


X  INTRODUCTION. 

laid  upon  a  sure  basis  in  the  affections  of  an  ear- 
nest, self-S!.crificing,  Christian   community.     In   a 
few  years,  when  the  gospel  shall  have  been  intro- 
duced into  about  one-twelfth  of  the  villages  and 
cities   of  the   country,   and    enough   light-centers 
have  been  set  up  to  secure,  Avith  the  divine  bless- 
ing, the  complete  success  of  the   Christian  work 
through  the  piety  and  zeal  of  the  native  churches, 
the  missionaries  may  leave  this  field  for  the  "  re- 
gions  beyond."     Tlie   pecuniary   expenditure   for 
the  carrying  on  of  this  work,  for  the    salaries  of 
missionaries,  for  aid  in  the  support  of  native  preach- 
ers and  pastors,  in  church-building,  and  in  schools, 
including  the  partial  support  of  pupils  in  the  two 
seminaries,  now  numbering   about   ninety  pupils, 
has  been,  upon  the  average,  a  little  short  of  six 
thousand   dollars   a   year!     Yet   here    were   men 
enough  and  money  enough  for  the  prosecution  of 
the  Avork.     Such  is  the  economy,  as  to  men  and 
means,  of  the  apostolic  method  here  revived.     In 
accordance  Avitli  this  method,  the  eastern  Turkey 
Mission  ask  for  but  twelve  men,  to  occupy  four 
centers,  in  order  to  the  evangelization  of  a  region 
four  times  the  size  of  the  State  of  New  York,  with 
a  population  of  three  millions  or  more.     In  accord- 
anc3  Avitli  this  method,  the  advance  of  the  mis- 


INTRODUCTION.  XI 

siojaiy  work  during  the  last  ten  years  in  western 
Asia,  mostly  in  the  Armenian  Missions,  is  marked 
by  the  following  figures  :  native  pastors  increased 
from  five  to  thirty-four;  native  churches  from 
thirty-four  to  sixty-seven ;  church-members  from 
one  thousand  one  hundred  and  twenty-seven  to  three 
thousand  two  hundred  and  forty-eight ;  and  con- 
tributions from  five  hundred  dollars  to  over  twelve 
thousand  dollars  j)er  year. 

Degraded  a'nd  giVen  over  to  superstition  as  the 
people  have  been,  yet  these  Missions  among  nomi- 
nal Christians  have  liad  a  great  advantage  over 
those  in  purely  heathen  lands,  in  consequence  of 
the  belief  in  one  God  and  in  the  Scriptures.  The 
object  and  the  method  of  missionary  eifort  are 
everywhere  the  same,  however,  as  illustrated  by 
apostolic  example,  whether  in  the  synagogues  of 
the  Jews  or  amid  heathen  temples. 

It  is  by  such  a  method  that  the  evangelization 
of  the  world  becomes  a  possible  problem  for  tlie 
present  generation  of  Christians.  In  view  of  the 
preparation  made  during  the  last  fifty  years,  the 
acquaintance  gained  with  tlie  peculiarities  of  dif- 
ferent countries  and  nations,  the  languages  mas- 
tered, the  Scrijitures  translated,  tlie  prejudices 
overcome,  the  transfonning  power  of  the  gospel 


XII  INTRODUCTION. 

illustratecl  so  widely  by  the  lives  of  missioiifriea 
and  of  native  Christians ;  and  in  view  of  the  won- 
derful providences  by  which  the  world  is  now  open 
to  Christian  effort,  and  made  one  by  easy  intei*- 
commnnication,  and  bound  together  by  commercial 
intercourse,  the  lessons  of  this  volume  have  a  spe- 
cial significance ;  they  open  up  to  the  Christian 
church  the  solemn  duty  and  the  high  pi-ivilege  of 
a  world's  evangelization. 

The  example  of  Harpoot  maj^  seem  to  be  excep- 
tional. It  may  be  so  to  some  extent  in  the  pecu- 
liar character  of  the  men  there,  working  harmoni- 
ously together,  vmlike,  but  not  unequal,  supple- 
mentincf  each  the  others.  An  interior  station  has 
some  advantages  over  those  exposed  to  the  de- 
nioralizing  influences  of  too  early  contact  with  civ- 
ilization without  the  gospel.  It  is  exceptional,  too, 
in  the  fact  that  this  station  is  almost  the  only  one 
that  has  had  an  adequate  number  of  men  to  carry 
on  the  work  in  its  many  details,  and  to  exercise 
the  proper  superintendence  of  the  native  agency. 
One  or  two  men  could  not  have  done  it ;  and  yet 
it  is  sad  to  see  how  often  in  the  past,  and  now  also, 
one  or  two  men  are  left  to  attempt  it  j  and,  if  pos- 
sible, it  is  yet  more  sad  to  see  other  centei-s  of 
equal  promise  left  unoccupied,  when  such  immense 


INTR  OD  UCTION.  XIH 

results  to  the  kingdom  of  Christ  seem  in  waiting 
as  the  reward  of  missionary  labor. 

But,  aside  from  these  general  considerations,  this 
work  will  be  of  great  value  and  interest  to  all  mis- 
sionaries, and  to  all  who  contemplate  engaging  in 
the  missionary  work.  It  is  rich  in  suggestions,  not 
only  of  the  true  method  of  labor,  but  of  practical 
experience  in  dealing  with  all  classes  of  persons,  and 
not  least  with  native  Christians, — in  developing 
among  a  people,  ground  down  by  political  and  ec- 
clesiastical oppression,  a  spirit  of  manly  indepen- 
dence, in  bringing  them  to  a  willing  and  hearty 
support  of  their  own  institutions,  and  to  engaging 
in  Christian  labor  for  those  about  them.  To  such, 
the  chapters  on  "  The  Work  to  be  done,"  "  The  Na- 
tive Ministry,"  "  The  Seminaries,"  "  The  Position  of 
the  Churches  and  Pastors,"  will  be  of  special  inter- 
est. The  whole  volume,  in  short,  may  well  become 
a  "vade  mecum"  to  every  missionary  candidate, 
and  will  hardly  fail  of  furnishing  useful  hints  to 
the  tried  veteran  in  the  service. 

The  brief  survey  of  the  missions  in  western 
Asia,  the  historical  and  geographical  details  of  the 
different  fields,  will  suffice  to  give  the  general 
reader  an  accurate  conception  of  the  condition  and 
prospects  of  the  Christian  work  in  this  part  of  the 
globe,  now  the  center  of  so  much  poUtical  interest. 


XIV  INTRODUCTION. 

The  maps  and  the  ilhistrations  give  increased  defi- 
niteness  to  the  graphic  descriptions  of  the  writer. 
The  fresh  incidents  of  missionary  life,  the  occa- 
sional side  references  to  customs  at  home,  the  keen 
insight  into  chai'acter,  the  warm  glow  of  an  ear- 
nest Christian  spirit  thoroughly  devoted  to  this 
great  work,  but,  more  than  all,  the  record  of  success, 
of  independent,  self-supj^orting  Christian  churches, 
of  finished  work,  as  the  fruit  of  these  ten  years  of 
faith  and  toil,  of  patient  continuance  in  well-doing 
amid  hoj^es  sometimes  disappointed,  amid  the 
ingratitude  and  slowness  of  heart  of  some,  and  the 
loving  faith  and  cheerful  sacrifices  of  others,  —  all 
these  varied  elements  combine  to  make  this  an 
attractive  volume  to  all  who  love  the  cause  of 
Christ  and  the  progress  of  his  kingdom. 

Possibly  the  story  of  the  sacrifices  which  the 
native  Christians  of  eastern  Turkey  are  willing  to 
make  for  Him  they  have  so  recently  learned  to 
love  may  quicken  the  faith  of  believers  at  home, 
inspire  new  hope,  and  prompt  to  greater  efibrt  to 
extend  the  blessings  of  the  gospel  to  all  mankin  i. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

MISSIONS   IN   TURKEY   AND   PERSIA, 

Purpose  of  the  book — "American  Board"  —  Annual  meeting!?  of 
missions— T/ie  Syriq  Mission  — 'Edncntion  —  Mission  to  Central 
Turkey  —  Language  —  Apostolic  policy  —  Mission  to  Western  Tur- 
;te(/  — Stations  — Languages  — The  press  — Effort  to  make  the 
churches  self-supporting  —  Dilliculties  —  3Iodern  crusaders  —  JVes- 
tor/a«  J//ss;o)i  — :Mountain  Nestorians  — Bader  Khan  Bey  — The 
Female  Seminary- Amadia  and  Mosul  — Missionary  graves  — 
Mission  to  Eastern  Turkey  —  Nineveh  —  Babylon  —  Ur  of  the 
Chaldees  —  Mardin  —  Diarbekir  —  Mr.  Walker's  grave  —  Labors  — 
Bitlis  —  Van- Erzroom  — Harpoot.  15 

CHAPTER   II. 

EASTERN   TURKEY — DIVISIONS  AND   RACES  —  HARPOOT 
MISSION-FIELD. 

Geography  of  the  country  — Mesopotamia  — Assyria  — Battle-field  — 
Armenian  king  Abgar,  and  Jesus  — Gregory  the  '•Illuminator"  — 
Boundaries  of  Armenia  —  Koordistan  —  Surface,  climate,  and  pro- 
ductions—Ararat— "A  little  wine  "—Mingled  population— Arabs— 
Yezidees  —  Ivoords  —  Kizzlebashes  —  Dada  — I'anthoism  —  G  retks 
—  Hypocrisy  — Turks  — Cretan  war —The  "sick  man  "—Turkish 
toleration,  and  Russian  and  G  reek  intolerance  —  Mohammedanism 
and  Mars'  Hill—  Nominal  Christians- Sects  — ^rmewjans- Ori- 
gin _  History  —  Martyrs  —  Character  —  Reverence  for  the  Scrip- 
tures—l-'itness  to  be  nii.*sionaries— Want  of  stability  — Mission- 
aries in  Harpoot— The  field  — Eden- Position  and  scenery  of 
Harpoot  — Principal  cities  of  the  district— Gospel  in  advance  of 
roads 38 

XV 


XVI  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   III. 

THE   WORK   TO   BE  DONE. 

Little  chi)l  and  heathen  mother  —  Work  of  missions  not  alms- giving 
—  Paul  —  Dangers  —  Free  pills  and  gospel  —  Spoiled  church  and 
discouraged  missionary  —  "Poor  helpers'" salaries  — The  gospel 
ministry  cheaper  than  that  of  false  systems  —  Godliness  gain  —  A 
"free"  gospel  not  valued  —  Pastorless  church  —  Harpoot  —  The 
subscription-paper  —  Clamor  silenced  —  The  man  in  search  of  a 
"cheap  religion  "  —  The  deceived  man  —  Professed  friends  hinder- 
ing the  missionary  work  —  Niggardly  Christians  poor  pillars  in  the 
church  —  Schools  and  seminaries  -not  introductory  to  the  gospel, 
but  secured  as  a  fruit  of  evangelization  —  The  gospel  a  power  of 
itself —  Leaven,  not  bread  —  Not  a  system,  but  a  systematizer  —  Es- 
sentials and  non-essentials  —  Missionaries  to  plant  the  Christian 
Church — The  rebellion  to  be  put  down 68 

CHAPTER    IV. 

PASTORS,   SELF-SUPPORT,    SELF-GOVERNMENT,   THE 

churches'   threefold   CORD. 

Apostolic  example  —  Paul,  Titus,  Timothy  —  "  Ordain  elders  in  every 
church"  —  Harpoot  church  —  Seven  years'  struggle  —  Missionary 
pastors  not  to  be  found  —  Not  lit  —  Not  supported  —  Eight  of  the 
churches  to  furnish  their  own  ministry  —  Each  church  to  choose  its 
mon  pastor — The  Perch  enj  "call"  —  The  lot  cast  —  salaries  of  pas- 
tors—  Missionary  aid  in  supporting — The  churches  independent 
— They  and  their  pastors  "commended  to  the  Lord"  and  let 
alone  —  Communion  etiquette  —  Faith  and  practice  —  Ephesian 
elders  —  Cretans  —  Hard  work  in  Harpoot  —  3Iethods  of  action  — 
Added  territory  and  churches — "Christ  sent  us  not  to  baptize, 
but  to  preach  the  gospel  " — The  Malatia  church  begging  the  sac- 
raments—  "  The  pretended  cripple  "  —  Missionaries 'strength  — to 
what  given 92 

CHAPTER   V. 

THE     TRUTH     READ. 

First  works  —  Ignorance  of  the  people  —  Missionary  pastors  —  Paid 
women  whipped  into  reading — Results  —  "Little  teachers"  — 
Schools — Expense —  Statistics — Armenian  schools  —  Book  sales 
—  Power  of  the  Bible— "Thief  Maghak"—Najaran  — The  men 


CONTEXTS.  XVH 

beaten  —  Korpeli  —  Osman  Bpy  and  the  honest  tenant  —  Kcv<)rk 
Dashjian  and  the  borrowed  Uib'.e  —  A  profligate  saved  —  "  You  do 
the  preaching,  I'll  take  the  beatings  "  — The  enraged  choolgee  and 
bis  primer — The  Perchenj  teacher  and  his  Bible — Church  formed 

—  Home-missionary  society— Hooeli  —  "O  Lord,  give  us  open 
doors  and  hearts"— The  disobedient  mob  — Chapel  built  — Tlie 
Bible-laden  donkey 113 

CHAPTER   VI. 

THE  TRUTH  PREACHED  AND  SUNG. 

Primitive  preachers — Paul's  preaching  a  model  for  the  missionary 

—  "  Do  you  know  how  to  read?  "  — The  missionary  a  map-making 
pioneer — Hats  and  audiences  — No  broad  aisle — "Miserable  sin- 
ner and  not  ashamed  to  own  it"  —  "  Thou  art  the  man"  —  The 
repentant  thief— The  law  preached  —  No  motto-sermons  —  Order 
of  Sabbath  services  in  Harpoot  —  Languages  —  Congregational 
singing  —  Chapels  —  How  built  —  Expense  —  No  pews — Dedi- 
cated to  God  —  Evangelization  there  and  at  home  —  "Free 
churches." "'^3 

CHAPTER   VII. 

THE   NATIVE   MINISTRY  —  HARPOOT   SEMINARY. 

The  difficult  problem  —  Churches  to  furnish  their  own  ministry  — 
Where  to  be  educated  —  Plan  of  Harpoot  Seminary — Tenrts  of 
admission  —  Study  and  labor  united  —  Missionary  superintendence 
in  winter  —  Graduation  —  Licensure  —  Ordination  —  Seminary 
studies  —  Systematic  theology  —  I'reaching  —  What  is  a  good  ser- 
mon?—  Care  in  sseli'ctinrj  men  —  Hirelings  rejected —  Care  in  sup- 
porting men —  Salaries  —  The  plot — "Can't  you  cast  that  care 
too  on  .Jesus?  "  —  "I  wonder  the  earth  didn't  swallow  me  up  "  — 
Pecuniary  matters  carried  to  Jesus  —  Care  in  educating  men  — 
The  Bible  as  a  teacher  —  Pupils  not  overeducated — Trained  in 
their  own  vernacular  —  No  English  —  Syria  High  School  —  Bebek 

—  No  smoking  —  Ministerial  dignity  overestimated  —  The  cure  — 
Statistics  of  seminary  —  Pr;ispective  transfer  to  the  care  of  tlie 
churches — Garabed  I'ilibosian  —  His  letter 1G3 

CHAPTER    VIII. 

IIARI'OOT   FEMALE    SEMINARY. 
No  unmarried  niou  ordained  —  Object  of  the  seminary  —  Nursery  — 


XVIII  CONTENTS. 


The  Bible  the  cliief  text-book  —  The  blundering  readers  —Day 
pupils  —  Buyiug  tickets  and  books — The  two  weeping  candidates 

—  Tublic  interest  excited  —  Teachers  prepared  —  Girlsas  boarding 
pupils  —  Terms  of  admission  —  I'rotestants  at  a  premium  in  the 
matrimonial  market — Missionary  teachers  not  fur  mere  com- 
mon schools  —  Statistics  of  seminary  —  Graduation  —  Diplomas  — 
Christian  spirit  of  pupils  —  Kohar— Her  evangelistic  labors  — 
"The  Lord  has  been  with  us  all  the  time"  —  Sabbath  labor  of  pu- 
pils in  villages  —  Letter  from  Miss  West  —  The  young  widows  — 
The  Mardin  woman  — The  "  Jlothers'  Association  "  — Bible  and 
theology  lessons  —  "God's  plan  of  employing  man"  — All  made 
easy  —  Missionaries  agreed  —  Need  of  a  female  seminary  in  Mar- 
din —  Proposed  seminary  of  the  churches  —  Kohar's  contribution 

—  Letter  from  Miss  West  —  Closing  exercises  of  seminary  in  18G7 

—  "  Che\ving  the  cud  "  —  Christ's  "  diplomas  "  — The  live  foreign 
missionaries  —  The  gifts  —  The  "reunion"  —  Singing  in  five  lan- 
guages—The  "  good-bye."  186 

CHAPTER   IX. 

FRUITS. 

Arabs,  Koords,  and  Turks  —  Fanaticism  gone  —  Crescent  and  cross  — 
Armenians  —  I'riesthood  despised  —  Monasteries  impoverished  — 
Papists  and  the  Bible  —  Preachers  and  preaching  —  The  feeble 
brother — "Send  us  a  senior,  if  you  please"  —  Moral  refirm  — 
The  quarrelsome  women  — Temperance  —  "  Woman's  rights  "  se- 
cured —  "  All  the  missionaries'  wives  angels  "  —  Converts  —  Sta- 
tistics of  churches  —  Churches  in  prospect  —  Geghi  Kasabah  — 
Sarkis  and  his  Testament  —  Pala  and  the  twelve  women  —  The 
"devout  and  honorable  women"  of  Choonkoosh  —  Women's 
plastering-bee  —  "  Harpoot  Evangelical  Union  "  organized  —  Con- 
stitution —  Its  work  —  Education  Society  —  Bible  societies  — 
"Why  don't  you  feed  your  donkey?"  —  Home  missions  —  The 
female  evangelist  of  Harpoot  —  Foreign  missions  —  Young  man 
in  search  of  light  —  The  interesting  monthly  concert  —  The  impa- 
tient little  boys  of  Diarbekir 222 

CHAPTER   X. 

TITHE-GIVING  —  REVIVAL. 

Plan  of  campaign  —  Hoh  —  The  donkey's  food  — The  hungry  preachet 
The   gospel   put  upon  its  own  merits—  Bhepik  —  The  sluggish 


CONTENTS.  XIX 


pastor  —  Blind  "  John  Concordance  "  —  "  Bring  ye  all  the  tithes  " 

—  Deep  poverty  — The  Lord's  store-house  —  i'astor  recalled  — 
Meeting  of  Evangelical  Union  —  Means  of  securing  a  revival  — 
Saints  in  biographies  — Discussions  —  llesolution  on  tithe-gi  viiig  — 
Hulakegh  — The  arrow  in  the  mark  —  Collectors  dispensed  with 

—  The  scoured  cents  —  The  converted  tithe-giver  —  The  windows 
of  heaven  opened  —  The  converted  infidel  —  "lam  that  cursed 
fig-tree"  —  Kestitution  made  —  The  awakened  blasphemer —  Tlie 
cross  too  heavy  —  The  converted  Unitarian  —  Characteristics 
of  the  revival  — Work  of  the  "feeble"  brethren- The  city 
moved  —  Prayer-meetings  —  Ilooeli  — The  crowded  chapel  —  Scor- 
ners  learning  to  pray  —  The  Bible  adding  a  story  to  the  houses  — 
The  seven  aged  widows  —  Pride  rebuked  and  humbled  —  The  im- 
patient women —  The  Pharisee  converted  in  answer  to  prayer  — 
Christians  learning  to  pray  —  Danger  escaped.         .        .        .    248 

CHAPTER  XI. 

POSITION   OF   THE   CHURCHES   AND   PASTORS. 

The  two  committees  — Independence  and  self-support  united  — Un- 
called-for anxiety  — The  rejected  motion  —  The  loved  timber  — 
"  Bless  the  Lord  for  that  word"  —  The  circular  —  "  Subjection  to 
the  beneficence  of  others!"  —  The  Koordish  work  —  "May  the 
Lord  give  you  a  hapjiy  new  year"  —  Covetousness  not  yet  all 
gone  —  Beggars  here  at  homo !  —  Enthusiastic  liberality  not  piety 

—  Source  of  our  joy  —  The  day  dawning  —  Ouly  one-fourteenth 
of  the  cities  and  villages  to  be  occupied  by  us  —  One  missionary 
to  one-fourth  of  a  million  —  Medical  missionaries'  work  —  Vase 
of  flowers  and  banyan  tree  —  Three  resolutions — Trouble  may  come 

—  Hours  of  discouragement — Causes  of  gratitude  —  Noble  band  of 
preachers  —  Pentecostal  blessings  anticipated — Minot's  Ledge 
light-house  —  Mist  on  Harpoot  plain — Sun  of  Righteousness 
arisen =*  ...    283 

CHAPTER   XII. 

THE     FOUR     WANTS. 

All  to  help  —  Popular  ignorance  of  missions  —  Missionary  publica- 
tions not  read  —  iloiitlily  concert  neglected  —  First  way  of  help- 
ing—Help  by  prayer — Praying  by  "  substitutes  "  —  God  to  ba 
"inquired  of" — Tlie  "  jjrayer-list  "  —  Third  mode  of  helphig  — 
Selfish  professors  to  be  set  at  work  —  Look  out  for  number  one  — 


XX  CONTENTS. 


Sleeping-car  religion  —Fourth  want— Tiie  polyglot—  "  He's  not 
a  bit  of  a  gentleman  "  —  "  Tray  always  "  —  Common  sense  needed 
—  The  fiistidious  man  —  Knowledge  of  human  nature  —  Courage 
and  firmness  of  purpose — The  victim  of  conservative  timidity  — 
Missionary  ditching  and  changing  base  —  "  Consecrated  "gener- 
als—  The  missionary  campaign  —  "First-class"  work — Urgent 
call  for  men  — The  American  drawing-room  —  (  atholicaud  lagan 
invaders — The  Chinese  to  be  evangelized  a<  /.ome-- James,  and 
the  Jerusalem  pastorate  —  Laborers  to  seek  work,  notplace  —  Mis- 
sions not  to  convert,  h\it  evangelize  the  world — Results  seen  — 
Missionary  engineering  —  Call  for  men  —  Some  unable  to  sing  in 
heaven 306 


A  few  words  on  the  pronunciation  of  proper  names  will  aid  tho 
reader. 

a  as  in  father ;  e.  g.,  Adana,  Harpoot,  Van,  Marsovan. 

^  as  a  in  lady  ;  i.  e.,  a  without  the  vanish  or  ee  sound  which  is 
heard  when  a  is  pronounced  separately. 

ias  in  machine;  e.g.,  Sivas,  pronounced  See-vas;  Shtipik,  Shar 
peek  ;  Mardin,  Mar-deen. 

fi  as  00 ;  e.  g.,  Mosul,  pronounced  Mo-sool. 

ai  as  i  in  fine;  e.  g.,  Hain6,  Hi-na. 

eh  as  k;  as,  KOrpeh,  K6r-pa. 

a  following  /  is  pronounced  separately  ;  e.  g.,  Amadia,  A-ma-dee-a; 
Sophia,  So-foe-a  ;  Malatia,  Tila-la-tee-a  ;  Diarbekir,  Dee-ar-bek-eer. 

eu  has  the  sound  of  m  in  further  ;  e.  g.,  Pashaeunk. 

gh  as  a  guttural,  g  hard  ;  e.  g.,  Aghansi,  pronounced  A-gan-soe. 
Gh  in  Eski  Zaghra  is  silent. 

g  is  uniformly  hard  ;  e.  g.,  Egin. 

ch  as  in  chain,  e.  g.,  Chermook,  Choonkoosh. 

hh  like  the  guttural  German  ch.  If  the  k  be  silent  and  the  't  pro- 
nounced  with  a  strong  aspiration,  it  is  very  nearly  correct ;  e.  g., 
Khanoos,  Ua-noos  ;  Ivharpoot,  Ilar-poot,  jud  now  so  spelled. 


TEN  YEARS  ON  THE  EUPHRATES. 


oj«=:o^ 


CHAPTER  I. 

MISSIOJ^S  IN   TURKEY  AND  PERSIA. 

^OULD  that  "  mine  adversary "  might 
have  the  weariness,  and  perhaps  also 
&fQ)a)  the  reproach,  of  writing  this  book,  and 
"^  leave  to  me  the  more  congenial  employ- 
ment of  meeting  the  friends  of  Missions  face  to 
face,  and  rehearsing  what  God,  by  his  Word 
and  Spirit,  has  been  doing  in  tlie  field  commit- 
ted to  my  associates  and  myself.  But  the 
interest  manifested  by  many  audiences  in  a 
part  of  the  story,  as  told  by  word  of  mouth, 
has  led  me  to  feel  that  a  more  full  narration 
by  the  pen  would  be  interesting  and  profitable, 
especially  among  that  great  majority  whom  no 
verbal   account  can  reach.     Hence  this  book, 

15 


16  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

the  purpose  of  which  is  sufficiently  indicated 
by  the  title-page. 

I  have  not  the  time,  the  knowledge,  nor  the 
disposition  to  attempt  a  history  of  the  missionary 
work  in  Turkey,  from  the  day  when  those  noble 
and  honored  pioneers,  Messrs.  Fiske,  Parsons, 
Smith,  Dwight,  Goodell,  and  their  associates, 
opened  the  missionary  campaign  in  Syria  and 
western  Turkey.  That  labor  I  leave  to  other 
and  abler  liands,  and  shall  confine  myself  chiefly 
to  tlie  more  limited  district  i]i  which  my  im- 
mediate associates'  and  myself  have  labored. 
A  glance  at  the  whole  field  will,  however,  give 
a  more  definite  idea  of  this  particular  portion 
of  it  and  of  the  work  which  is  going  on  both 
there  and  here.  If  the  pronoun  "I"  occur 
quite  frequently,  it  will  be  remembered  that 
the  story  is  necessarily  to  a  great  extent  one 
of  personal  reminiscences,  and  that  any  at- 
tempt to  eliminate  this  element  and  to  speak 
in  the  third  person  would  only  result  in  mak- 
ing the  narration  modestly  formal,  if  not  dull, 
in  place  of  being  more  vivid  and  lifelike. 

The  mission-field  occupied  by  tlie  American 


MISSIONS   /jV   turkey  AN^D   PERSIA.  17 

Board  *  in  Turkey  *aiul  Persia  has  been  geo- 
graphically divided  at  different  times  to  suit 
the  convenience  of  the  missionaries  occupying 
the  different  stations,  who,  or  at  least  a  part  of 
them,  are  obliged  to  meet  once  a  year  to  con- 
sult upon  the  plans  and  measures  for  the  ensu- 
ing year,  and  to  agree  upon  the  amount  of 
money  which  shall  be  asked  from  the  Board  for 
carrying  out  their  plans.  Since  Turkey,  with 
here  and  there  an  unimportant  exception,  has 
110  railroads  nor  even  carriage  roads,  and  loco- 
motion must  be  slowly  and  laboriously  effected 
u[)on  the  backs  of  camels,  horses,  mules,  or 
donkeys,  the  territory  occupied  must  be  quite 
minutely  divided,  in  order  to  prevent  too  great 
an  expenditure  of  time,  money,  and  strength  in 
reaching  the  place  of  annual  meeting. 

At  present,  the  divisions  are  five.  The  terri- 
tory lying  along  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Med- 
iterranean from  33°  to  35°  north  latitude,  and 
embracing   the    cities   Beirut,    Sidon,   Tripoli, 

*  This  term,  or  the  term  "  Board,"  wherever  used  in  this  volume, 
applies  to  the  "  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Mis- 
Bions,"  whicli  is  the  organ  of  the  Congregational  and  New  School 
I'resbyterian  Churches. 


18  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE    EUPHRATES. 

and  others,  is  called  the  "  Syria  Mission."  The 
language  used  in  tliis  Mission  is  Arabic,  in 
which  the  entire  Bible,  and  other  religious 
books,  have  been  given  to  the  people.  It  is, 
however,  a  discouraging  fact  that,  while  this 
mission-field  has  been  occupied  more  than  two- 
score  years,  during  which  time  much  has  been 
done  for  education  by  establishing  numerous 
schools,  and  at  length  a  seminary,  and  a  col- 
lege* of  the  higliest  grade,  yet,  owing  to  un- 
toward circumstances,  little,  if  anything,  has 
been  done  in  the  establisliment  of  independent, 
living  Christian  churches ;  and  the  church  in 
Beirut,  organized  in  1848,  is  still  witliout  a 
pastor  of  its  own.  It  is,  on  the  other  hand, 
encouraging  to  know  that  some  of  our  brethren 
there  are  beginning  to  feel  that  this  state  of 
things  must  not  longer  exist. 

Passing  northward,  to  the  territory  lying 
about  the  gulf  of  Scanderoon,  and  embracing 
the  cities  of  Antioch,  Adana,  Aintab,  Marash, 
and  Oorfa  (Ur  of  the  Chaldees),  we  enter  the 

*  This  college,  which  is  at  Beirut,  is  not  under  missi  jnary  control, 
nor  supported  by  funds  of  the  American  Board. 


MISSWXS   I-V    TURKEY     IND   PERSIA.  19 

"  Mission  to  Central  Tnrkej,"  so  called  from 
its  somewhat  central  location  in  the  empire. 
Here  our  hearts  are  cheered  at  meeting  a  peo- 
ple, who,  exiles  from  Armenia,  tlie  home  of 
their  fathers,  and  having  for  tlie  most  part  lost 
their  national  language  and  adopted  the  Turk- 
ish, the  language  of  their  Moslem  conquerors 
and  oppressors,  are  in  their  lonely  exile,  as 
were  the  captive  sorrowing  Jews  in  Babylon, 
more  susceptible  of  religious  impressions,  and 
more  ready  to  give  heed  to  divine  admonitions, 
nthan  are  the  haughty  Arabic-speaking  popula- 
tions to  tlie  south  of  them. 

Happily,  all  the  missionaries  here  have 
given  due  weight  to  the  example  of  the  first 
foreign  Christian  missionaries,  who  went  from 
Antioch  in  the  southern,  to  do  their  missionary 
work  in  the  north-western,  part  of  this  present 
missionary  field,  and,  in  placing  the  church 
of  God  in  its  completeness  foremost,  have  re- 
ceived the  seal  of  divine  approval  in  a  truly 
spiritual  work,  and  over  the  hundreds  of  con- 
verts whom  the  Master  has  hor.ored  them  -to 
gather  into  churches  have  had  the  pleasure  of 


20  TJiN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

putting  pastors  who  seem  to  be  men  chosen  of 
God  to  be  overseers  of  his  flock.  It  is  to  be 
devoutly  hoped  that,  having  so  far  imitated 
their  great  exemplar,  the  chosen  apostle  to  the 
Gentiles,  our  brethren  will  be  bold  enough  to 
follow  him  to  the  end,  to  "  commend  to  the 
Lord  "  the  clmrches  which  they  plant,  and,  ex- 
cept so  far  as  apostolic  counsel  may  be  needed 
and  accepted,  to  leave  them  alone  to  manage 
their  own  ecclesiastical  affairs  in  their  own 
way,*  looking,  as  the  churches  of  every  land 
wln'ch  are  worthy  of  the  name  must  look,  to' 
Christ  alone  as  their  guide  and  ruler. 

The  territory  lying  to  the  north-west  of  this 
Central  Mission,  and  including  the  larger 
part  of  Asia  Minor,  and  that  portion  of  Tur- 
key in  Europe  lying  south  of  the  Balkan 
Mountains,  is  called  the  "  Mission  to  Western 
Turkey."  In  this  mission,  Sophia,  Adriauople, 
Philippopolis,  Eski-zaghra,  and  Constantinople, 
in  European  Turkey,  and  Smyrna,  Broosa,  Nic- 
omedia,  Marsovan,  Sivas,  and  Caesarea,  in  Tur- 

*  This  expression  is  used  in  no  denominational  sense,  since  all 
Protestant  churches  do  this,  or  at  least  profess  to. 


MISSIOXS   ly   TURKEY  AND    PERSIA.  21 

key  ill  Asia,  are  occupied  by  missionaries  of 
the  Board.  The  languages  here  used  are  • 
chiefly  three :  the  Bulgarian,  among  the  peo- 
ple of  that  name  in  the  first  four  cities  men- 
tioned, the  Armenian,  among  a  portion  of  the 
Armenians,  and  the  Turkish,  among  the  mass  of 
the  people,  including  Armenians  and  Bulgari- 
ans, as  well  as  Turks  and  Greeks  and  the  other 
numerous  races  which  make  up  that  strange 
conglomerate,  the  population  of  Turkey.  From 
the  mission  press  in  Constantinople,  Dr.  Riggs 
has  given  to  the  Armenians  of  northern  and 
eastern  Turkey  an  admirable  translation  of  the 
Bible  in  their  own  tongue,  and  entered  upon 
the  same  work  for  the  Bulgarians  in  their  lan- 
guage. Dr.  Goodcll,  previous  to  his  death, 
gave  to  the  Armenians  of  the  Central  Mis- 
sion and  elsewhere  an  Armeno-Turkish  Bible, 
that  is,  in  the  Turkish  language,  printed  in  the 
Armenian  character,  and  Dr.  Schauffler  does 
the  same  for  the  Turks,  Ijy  revising  the  trans- 
lation which  has  been  made  in  their  'ongue, 
the  Arabo-Turkish. 
From  the  same  press  has  also  been  issued 


22  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

the  Grseco-Tiirkish  Bible,  and  the  four  gospels 
in  Koormangie  Koordish,  using  the  Armenian 
alphabet.  This  is  probably  the  only  book  ever 
printed  in  that  language,  which  is  used  not 
only  by  a  large  portion  of  the  Koords,  but  also 
by  many  thousands  of  Armenians,  Turks,  Yez- 
idees,  Jacobites,  and  Ncstorians  in  Koordistan, 
the  eastern  portion  of  Turkey  in  Asia.  From 
this  same  press  have  gone  forth  many  thousands 
of  copies  of  such  books  as  The  Saint's  Rest, 
Pilgrim's  Progress,  Doddridge's  Rise  and 
Progress,  Flavel  on  Keeping  the  Heart,  Mary 
Lothrop,  Work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  Nelson's 
Cause  and  Cure  of  Infidelity,  James's  Anxious 
Inquirer,  Tract  Primer,  Hymn  Books,  etc.,  also 
thousands  of  tracts  in  various  languages  and 
on  various  subjects,  and  semi-monthly  papers 
in  Armenian  and  Armeno-Turkish. 

An  earnest  effort,  which  we  hope  will  also 
be  persistent  and  successful,  is  now  being  made 
to  throw  upon  the  churches  in  this  mission  the 
support  of  their  own  pastors,  as  well  as  to  give 
pastors  to  those  still  without  them.  In  this 
hard  task,  made  harder  by  the  opposition  of 


MISSIONS   ly   TURKEY  AND   PERSIA.  23 

certain  native  preachers,  who,  having  been 
wrongly  educated,  and  too  long  supported  from 
the  Board's  treasury,  are  now  unwilling  to  de- 
pend upon  their  own  people  for  support,  our 
brethren  need  the  hearty  support,  tlie  sympa- 
thy, and  the  prayers,  of  all  the  friends  of  mis- 
sions. While  those  who'  labor  in  the  missionary 
work  at  Beirut,  Smyrna,  Constantinople,  and 
other  cities  along  the  coast,  where  the  people 
come  more  into  contact  with  the  outside  world, 
enjoy  one  advantage  in  the  greater  develop- 
ment of  manly  independence  among  the  people, 
giving  greater  stability  to  the  purposes  and 
character  of  converts,  this  advantage  is  proba- 
bly more  tlian  countcrl)alanccd  by  the  perni- 
cious influence  whicii  that  same  outside  world 
too  often  exerts,  even  when  it  bears  the  name 
of  Christian,  and  sometimes  even  the  distinct- 
ive title  of  evangelical.  It  is  a  sad  fact  that 
some  Christians,  and  even  some  Christian  min- 
isters, who  follow  the  fashionable  crowd  of 
crusaders  to  the  Orient  and  the  "  Holy  Land," 
sometimes  seem  to  leave  their  own  holiness  be- 
hind tliem  quite  as  really,  if  not  as  flagrantly, 


24  TEN    YEARS   ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

as  did  some  of  their  knightly  predecessors  of 
the  middle  ages.  Though  guilty  of  no  positive 
immorality,  they  sometimes  make  the  impres- 
sion upon  the  people  that  they  are  far  from 
being  the  saintly  men  they  have  been  supposed 
to  bo,  —  far,  at  least,  from  having  that  deep, 
practical  interest  in  the  salvation  of  men,  and 
in  the  speedy  and  complete  success  of  the  mis- 
sionary work,  which  might  rightfully  be  ex- 
pected. 

When  to  the  influence  of  some  such  as  these 
is  added  that  of  the  careless  pleasure-seekers 
who  visit  the  Orient  because  it  is  fashionable, 
and  because  it  is  a  convenient  way  of  spending 
money  and  killing  time,  it  can  be  seen  that  the 
missionaries  who  labor  upon  the  coast  not  only 
have  a  pleasure  which  we  in  the  interior  do 
not,  in  seeing  travelers  from  Christian  Europe 
and  America,  but  that,  in  })lanting  truly  Chris- 
tian churches,  they  meet  with  some  difficulties 
which  are  mostly  unknown  to  us.  Their  posi- 
tion is  specially  trying  when,  as  is  sometimes 
the  case,  travelers  lend  a  ready  ear  to  the  com- 
plaints of  dissatisfied  helpers  and  others,  and 


MISSIONS  ly   TURKEY  AND    PERSIA.  25 

thus  increase  the  existing  prejudice  against  the 
missionaries  both  there  and  at  liome.  Said 
one  of  these  travelers  to  me  on  board  a  steamer 
a  few  weeks  since,  "  Foreign  missions  are  all  a 
humbug ;  and  missionaries  only  go  out  to  have 
a  comfortable  time.  I've  been  in  China  and 
Japan,  and  seen  for  myself,  and  I  know.  My 
friends  have  been  accustomed  to  give  for  the 
cause,  but  I  am  going  home  to  persuade  them 
to  stop,  and  to  give  for  home  missions."  How 
many  visits  of  such  travelers  as  this  would  be 
required  to  undo  the  work  of  a  missionary  in 
Jedo,  Pckin,  or  Constantinople  ?  We,  at  least, , 
amid  the  primitive  darkness  and  sin  of  our 
mission-field,  far  off  from  the  route  of  mercan- 
tile and  fashionable  travel,  console  ourselves 
with  the  thought,  that,  while  deprived  of  an 
occasional  angel's  visit  from  a  warm-hearted 
Christian  brother  from  the  home-land,  we  are 
also  delivered  from  those  trials  with  which 
other  comers  are  sure  to  sandwich  the  food  which 
the  angels  bring. 

Taking  a  steamer  from  Constantinople  up  the 
Bosphorus  and  along  the  southern  shore  of  the 


26  TEN    YEAnS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

Black  Sea  to  Trebizond,  and  thence  making  a 
long  overland  journey  to  Oroomiah  in  Persia, 
we  reach  the  center  of  the  "  Nestorian  Mission," 
whose  territory  lies  partly  in  Persia  and  partly 
in  Turkey.  The  Persian  Nestorians  live  almost 
entirely  upon  the  rich  plain  which  stretches 
from  north  to  south  between  Oroomiah  Lake  and 
the  mountain  range  on  the  west.  In  the  moun- 
tains, which  are  mostly  within  the  limits  of 
Turkey,  live  the  mountain  Nestorians,  inter- 
mingled with  their  hereditary  enemies,  the 
Koords.  Amid  these  lofty  ranges  was  the 
home  of  Bader  Khan  Bey,  that  terrible  Koor- 
disli  chieftain  who  in  1846  massacred  such  num- 
bers of  tlie  poor  Nestorians.  Age  after  age  the 
fierce  hordes  of  barbarian  conquerors  swept 
past  from  Tartary,  and  successively  overran 
Asia  Minor;  but  they  tried  in  vain  to  sxibdue 
the  brave  Nestorians,  and  were  only  daslicd 
and  broken  against  the  crags  of  their  mountain 
homes,  till  Bader  Khan  Bey  first  treacherously 
slaughtered  the  Nestorians  and  then  was  him- 
self attacked  and  subdued  by  the  Turks.  These 
now  hold  precarious  sway  over  all  the  region  * 


JlJf.SSIOXS   /iV   TURKEY  AND   PERSIA.  27 

and  that  remnant  of  his  people  whom,  like  the 
Waldenses  among  the  Alps,  God  for  centuries 
hid  in  safety  and  comparative  purity  of  faitli 
and  practice  among  the  craggy  mountains,  are. 
in  chastisement  for  their  more  modern  defec- 
tion and  sin,  compelled  to  serve  the  Turk. 

Tlie  number  of  the  Nestorians  has  generally 
been  very  much  overestimated,  some  writers 
even  talking  of  hundreds  of  thousands.  They 
do  not  probably  exceed  seventy  thousand  ;  and  a 
recent  estimate  by  one  of  the  younger  mission- 
aries makes  those  on  the  plain  twenty  thousand, 
and  those  in  the  mountains  not  over  thirty-five 
thousand.  It  is  cause  for  thankfulness  that  the 
labors  of  the  able  and  devoted  band  of  mission- 
aries who  since  1834  have  toiled,  and  many  of 
them  laid  down  their  lives  for  this  people,  have 
been  so  richly  blessed  in  bringing  scores  and 
hundreds  to  a  knowledge  of  Christ.*     It  is,  at 

*  It  is  especially  gratifying  to  see  the  impression  which  Miss  Fisk 
and  Miss  Rice,  of  the  Female  Seminary,  —  the  former  of  whom  is  now 
ill  lioaven,  —  have  made  on  the  women  under  their  training.  The 
graduates  of  that  seminary  are  evorywliere  a  distinct  class,  tlie  difl'er- 
ence  in  character  between  them  and  those  around  them  being  ajipar* 
ont  evtui  to  one  who,  like  myself,  can  not  speak  their  language. 
3 


28  TEN    YEAnS   ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

the  same  time,  painful  to  know  that,  owing  to 
a  variety  of  luitoward  influences,  but  little 
progress  has  been  m'ade  in  planting  Christian 
institutions  supported  and  controlled  by  the 
people,  tlie  converts  still  receiving  the  com- 
munion from  missionary  hands.  Says  one  of 
tlieir  missionaries,  "  The  poor  people  can  bear 
adversity  better  than  prosperity.  Wc  arc  fail- 
ing in  planting  the  gospel  among  them  in 
any  form  that  will  stand  by  its  own  hold. 
Souls  are  saved,  and  not  a  few,  but  anything 
more  seems  to  be  a  failure."  Another  of  the 
missionaries  describes  the  monntain  Nestori- 
ans  as  "  lawless,  belligerent,  predatory,  and 
vagrant,"  and  as  "  less  ready  to  receive  the  gos- 
pel than  has  been  supposed."  The  fact  seems 
to  be  that,  since,  the  days  of  Dr.  Grant,  and  his 
romantic  and  heroic  efforts  for  "  the  lost  tribes 
of  Israel,"  tliese  mountains  of  Koordistan  have 
been  clothed  by  the  churches  in  rainbow-lmes, 
which  a  great  expense  of  missionary  money  and 
life  has  hardly  yet  dissipated,  except  to  the  eyes 
of  the  practical  men  on  the  ground.  The  plan 
of  occupying  and  evangelizing  those  mountains, 


MTSSIOXS  I.y   TURKEY  AND   r  ERST  A.  29 

whose  impenetrable  snows  of  winter  and  mala- 
rious rice-fields  of  summer  render  their  fastnes- 
ses inaccessible  or  unsafe  to  the  missionary  ex- 
cept during  two  months  of  spring  and  two  of 
autumn,  has  now  been  changed,  and  Amadia  is 
no  longer  looked  to  as  a  prospective  station  and 
grave  for  devoted  men  and  women  who  are 
ready  to  die,  but  ought,  if  permitted,  to  live  to 
labor  for  Christ. 

With  Amadia  passes  also  Mosul  from  the  list 
of  stations  to  be  occupied  permanently  by  mis- 
sionaries, since  it  was  as  a  base  of  operations  for 
Amadia  and  the  mountain  Nestorians  that  this 
city  was  first  occupied  by  missionaries,  ratlier 
than,  as  now,  by  a  native  laborer.  As  we  look 
upon  the  scattered  graves  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Mitchell,  Drs.  Grant  and  Lobdell,  Mr.  Hinsdale, 
Mrs.  Laurie,  the  first  and  the  second  Mrs. 'Wil- 
liams, and  Mrs.  Marsh,  and  think  of  these  lives 
as  the  price  of  a  "  base  for  Amadia,"  we  can 
only  call  to  mind  other  Christian  heroes,  wlio 
fell  in  impracticable  attempts  to  enter  Richmond 
from  a  wrong  base,  and  console  ourselves  with 
the  reflection  that  God  chooses  his  own  time  and 


30  TEN   YEARS   ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

way  for  taking  home  those  whom  he  calls  from 
their  finished  earthly  work  to  higher  service  in 
heaven. 

And  now  we  are  on  the  banks  of  the  Tigris, 
and  within  the  limits  of  the  fifth  and  last  Mission, 
—  that  to  "Eastern  Tm-key,"  which  was  con- 
stituted by  a  union  of  what  was  formerly  known 
as  the  "  Assyrian  Mission  "  with  the  eastern  sta- 
tions of  what  was  then  called  the  "  Northern 
Armenian  Mission,"  the  remainder  of  which  is 
now  known  as  the  "  Mission  to  Western  Tur- 
key." On  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Tigris,  op- 
posite the  city  of  Mosul,  are  the  mounds  which 
cover  the  ruins  of  Nineveh,  that  "  exceedino; 
great  city  of  three  days'  journey,"  whose  politi- 
cal life  Jonali  was  sent  to  prolong  for  a  brief 
season.  The  oriental  legend  that  the  fish  im- 
proved the  three  days  in  taking  tlie  propliet 
around  the  continent  of  Africa,  and  that  he  at 
length  "vomited  him  out"  upon  the  banks  of 
the  Tigris  opposite  the  city,  where  God  said  to 
him,  "  Go  unto  Nineveh  and  preach,"  does  not 
so  evidently  conflict  with  the  text  as  do  some 


^fTssloys  /iv  turkey  and  Persia.         31 

so-called   evangelical  ways   of  explaining  the 
story. 

Some  two  luuidred  miles  to  the  south,  upon 
the  banks  of  the  Euphrates,  lie  the  desolations 
of  Babylon,  swept,  according  to  the  word  of  the 
Lord,  "  with  the  besom  of  destruction,"  and 
made  "  a  possession  for  the  bittern,  and  pools  of 
water."  To  the  south-west,  west,  and  north- 
west stretch  away  the  fertile  plains  of  Mesopo- 
tamia, now  almost  entirely  desolate,  and  given 
up  to  ranging  robber  Arabs.  Some  three  hun- 
dred miles  distant,  a  little  north  of  west,  is 
Oorfa  (Ur  of  the  Chaldees),  Abraham's  city, 
which  is  now  the  most  eastern  station  of  the 
Mission  to  Central  Turkey  ;  and  about  one  hun- 
dred miles  to  the  east  of  Oorfa,  and  two  hun- 
dred to  tlic  north-west  from  Mosul,  perched 
upon  the  southern  face  of  the  mountaiiis  of 
Jcbcl  Toor,  is  the  city  of  Mardin,  the  most 
southern  station  of  the  Mission  to  Eastern  Tur- 
key, where,  in  the  absence  of  its  only  mission- 
aries, Mr.  and  Mrs.  Williams,  at  Harpoot,  a 
newly-organized  church,  with  the  pastor  of  their 
choice  supported   by  themselves,  hold  up  tho 


32  TEN    YEAnS   OAT   THE   EUPHRATES. 

lamp  of  gospel  liglit  amid  the  surrounding  Ja- 
cobite, Papal,  and  Mohammedan  darkness.  Mar- 
din  has  a  population  of  some  twenty  thousand, 
about  equally  divided  between  nominal  Chris- 
tians and  Mohammedans.     The  region  around, 
like  that  around  Mosul,  where  also  there  is  a 
church  partially  self-supporting,  is,   with  here 
and  there   a  faintly-glimmering  exception,  in 
the  deepest  spiritual  darkness  ;  since  the  call  for 
help  for  the  lone  missionary  in  this  Arabic-speak- 
ing portion  of  the  field  has  been  long  sent  across 
the  waters  in  vain.     None  have  yet  given  heed, 
and  perhaps  none  will,  till  the  Master  compel 
some  other  recreant  Jonah  to  heed  his  command 
to  preach  there  the  preaching  which  he  bids. 
Sure  I  am  that  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Williams  will  joy- 
fully welcome  almost  any  agency  which  shall 
bring   the   two   men,  with   their   companions, 
needed  to  make  Mardin  one  of  the  four  fully 
manned  stations  *  from  which  we  propose  to  do 
the  missionary  work  in  eastern  Turkey,  so  far 

♦  Tho  name  "station"  is  applied  to  a  city  occupied  by  missiona- 
ries, and  "  out-station  "  to  a  place  occupied  by  native  laborers.  The 
four  stations  above  alluded  to  are  Mardin,  Erzroom,  Harpoot,  and 
Van,  in  each  of  whicli  it  is  proposed  to  have  three  missionaries. 


MISSIONS   m  PERSIA    AND    TURKEY.  33 

a 

iis  it  devolves  on   the  American  cliurches  to 
do  it. 

About  sixty  miles  to  the  west  of  north  of 
Mardin,  upon  the  western  bank  of  the  Tigris, 
lies  Diarbekir,  a  walled  city  of  some  fifty  thou- 
sand inhabitants,  of  whom  about  two-thirds  arc 
Mohammedans  and  the  rest  nominal  Christians. 
Just  outside  the  city  walls,  upon  the  southern 
side, Mr.  Walker  made  his  grave,  in  August, 1866, 
because,  lefi;  to  labor  on  alone  among  a  popula- 
tion of  half  a  million  within  and  around  the 
city,  and  trying  to  do  double  duty  to  the  bodies 
and  the  souls  of  the  cholera-smitten  population, 
he  liad  not  liimsclf  vital  force  enough  left  to 
[jrofit  l)y  the  medicines  which,  when  promptly 
administered,  had  saved  others.  He  was  borne 
to  his  burial  amid  hundreds  who  wept,  as  over 
a  father  dead,  for  one  whom  but  a  few  years 
before  tlioy  would  gladly  have  driven  from  their 
city.  Two  churches — one  in  Diarbekir  itself  and 
one  in  the  village  of  Cutturbul,  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  Tigris,  having  a  total  of  one  hundred 
and  twenty-eiglit  mcml^ers,  with  a  Protestant 
community  in  the  city,  which  during  180G  con- 


34  TEN    YEARS    ON   T  IE    EUPURATES. 

tributcd  $1150  in  gold,  supporting  all  their 
own  institutions  and  doing  some  missionary 
work — are  liis  epitaph  and  testimony  that  he 
pleased  God  in  his  brief  missionary  life  of  less 
than  fourteen  years,  of  which  one  and  a  half 
were  spent  in  a  visit  to  his  native  land.  Ex- 
cept occasionally,  in  winter,  Diarbekir  will  pro- 
bably not  again  be  occupied  by  missionaries, 
and  the  great  outlying  field,  chiefly  to  the  east 
and  north-cast  in  Koordistan,  will  be  divided 
between  the  neighboring  stations  -Mardin  and 
Harpoot. 

About  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  miles 
north  of  oast  from  Diarbekir  is  Bitlis,  a  city 
of  some  twenty  thousand  inhabitants,  of  whom 
about  three-fifths  are  Mohammedans,  chicflv 
Koords,  and  the  rest  nominal  Christians, 
among  whom  the  labors  of  Messrs.  Knapp  and 
Burbank,  the  first  of  whom  removed  there 
in  1858,  were  blessed  in  planting  a  church  of 
seven  members  and  gathering  a  good  congre- 
gation. Both  the  missionaries  with  their  wives 
were  compelled  by  failure  of  health  to  return 
home   in   1863,  and    the   church  was    left   in 


MissfON^s  rN  PR  n  fir  A  and  turkey.         35 

charge  of  a  native  proaclier,  who  lias  since  be- 
come its  pastor. 

About  seveiity-fivc  miles  east  from  Bitlis, 
upon  the  south-eastern  shore  of  a  lake  bearing 
the  same  name,  lies  Van,  with  its  fourteen  thou- 
sand Armenians  and  eleven  thousand  Moham- 
medans. Scmiramis,  wife  of  the  Assyrian 
monarch  Ninus,  is  said  to  have  built  this  city 
centuries  before  Nebuchadnezzar  enlarged  and 
beautified  "  great  Babylon."  The  walled  por- 
tion of  the  city  is  close,  and  in  summer  is  un- 
healthy, fever  and  ague  especially  prevailing  ; 
but  in  the  gardens  on  the  rising  ground  out- 
side of  tlie  city  many  healthy  locations  are 
found,  and  in  some  of  these  the  missionaries 
who  are  yet  to  come  to  labor  for  the  large  Ar- 
menian and  Nestorian  and  Mohammedan  pop- 
ulation accessible  from  Van  as  a  center  must 
make  their  summer  home. 

Passing  to  the  north-west  some  six,  or,  in 
winter,  twice  as  many  days'  journey,  we  come 
to  Erzroom,  situated  upon  the  high  lands  about 
equidistant  from  Yan  on  the  south-east,  Tre- 
bizond  on  the  Black  Sea  on  the  north-west,  and 


36  TEN    YEARS   ON    THE    EUPHRATES. 

Harpoot  (hitlierto  spelled  Kliarpoot,  and  mis- 
pronounced as  Karpoot)  on  the  sontli-west. 
Situated  as  it  is,  upon  the  great  traveled  route 
between  Persia  and  the  outside  world,  and  filled 
with  a  heterogeneous  population  of  Armenians, 
Koords,  Turks,  Greeks,  Persians,  Circassians, 
Russians,  and  renegade  Europeans,  and  having 
been  occupied  only  feel)ly  and  fitfully  as  a  mis- 
sionary station,  it  is  not  strange  that  the  mis- 
sionary work  in  the  city  and  the  vast  region 
depending  upon  it  has  made  comparatively  lit- 
tle progress.  Both  of  the  missionaries  recently 
there,  Messrs.  Parmlee  and  Pollard,  with  their 
wives,  have  been  compelled  to  return  home,  and, 
in  a  territory  of  one  hundred  and  seventy  thou- 
sand square  miles,  with  a  population  of  more 
than  three  millions,  among  wliom  Mosul,  Mar- 
din,  Diarbekir,  Bitlis,  Erzroom,  Trebizond, 
Arabkir,  and  Harpoot  have  been,  and  Van  ought 
to  be,  only  Harpoot  is,  occupied  by  missionaries. 
Thus  a  total  of  seventy-three  out-stations  oc- 
cupied ])y  native  helpers,  who  number  in  all 
one  hundred  and  seventeen,  making  one- 
seventh  of  all  the  out-stations,  and  one -eighth 


MISSIONS  IN   TURKEY   AND    PERSIA.  37 

of  all  the  native  helpers  reported  as  in  the  em- 
ploy of  the  Board  in  1866,  with  two  theological 
seminaries  and  one  female  seminary,  and  a 
total  of  seventy-nine  schools,  which,  though 
largely  supported  and  cared  for  by  the  people 
themselves,  still  demand  much  missionary 
supervision,  —  in  a  word,  all  of  the  missionary/ 
work  in  this  great  field,  by  the  departure  of 
missionaries  to  their  homes,  either  in  America 
or  in  the  "  better  land,"  —  has  been  devolved 
upon  Messrs.  Allen,  Barnum,  and  Williams,  and 
their  wives,  at  Harpoot,  with  Miss  West  at  the 
head  of  the  female  seminary  there,  and  Rev. 
II.  S.  Barnum  and  wife,  who  have  recently 
reached  the  city  a  id  begun  to  learn  the  lan- 
guage. 


CHAPTER   II. 

v:astern  turkey. — divisions  and  races. — bar 

FOOT  mission-field. 

^^  EFORE  speaking  of  the  field  and  work  to 
IJ^D  wliicli  special  attention  will  be  paid,  let 
■-^^  us  take  a  hasty  view  of  tlie  country  at 
large  and  its  inliabitants.  In  the  south- 
ern part  of  tlic  territory  of  the  Mission  to 
Eastern  Turkey  are  tlie  eastern  portion  of 
Mesopotamia  and  Ancient  Assyria,  the  proper 
limits  of  which  seem,  to  have  extended  as  far 
north  as  the  Taurus  Mountains,  thougli,  in 
tlieir  frequent  contests  witli  the  Armenians  on 
the  north,  the  Assyrian  monai'chs  not  infre- 
quently passed  over  lluit  barrier  and  overran 
Armenia,  wliich  is  the  northern  division.  On 
the  eastern  ])ank  of  the  Tigris',  to  the  north  of 
Diarbekir,  the  Armenians  still  show  the  plain 
which   they  say  was   often  the  battle-field  of 

38 


rgJArGT'OA' 


nirisiONS.  39 

their  fathers  against  the  invading  Assyrians. 
When  the  invaders  were  able  to  pass  the 
mountain  range  rnnning  sontli  of  tlie  city, 
Haind,  the  Armenians  regarded  their  cause  as 
lost  until  they  shouhl  be  al»le  to  muster  new 
forces  to  expel  the  enemy.  A  few  miles  to  the 
north-east  from  Haine,  where  one  l)ranch  of  the 
Tigris  rnshes  in  its  power  from  the  base  of  a 
mountain,  can  still  be  read,  cnt  deep  upon  its 
rocky  face,  the  inscription,  "  This  is  the  third 
time  that  I,  Bclshazzar,  king  of  Assyria,  have 
conquered  this  territory;"  to  which,  perhaps, 
we  may  add,  "  We  too  are  now  making  its 
third  conquest  for  Christ ;  "  since  Armenian 
history  declares  that  the  nation  has  previously 
been  converted  twice  to  Christianity.  A  na- 
tional legend  says  that  Abgar,  one  of  their 
kings,  who  lived  in  the  days  when  Christ  was 
upon  earth,  having  heard  of  his  miracles,  and 
being  sick,  sent  messengers  praying  him  to 
come  and  heal  him  ;  and  that  Jesus  returned 
to  the  king  his  likeness  imprinted  upon  a  hand- 
kerchief, saying,  "  This  will  heal  him."  Un- 
luckily, the  story  loses  the  handkerchief  on  tlui 


40  TEN    YEARS   ON   THE  EUPHRATES. 

way,  ill  consequence  of  the  messengers  being 
attacked  by  robbers  and  throwing  it  into  a 
well ;  but  the  result  was  that  the  king  and  his 
court  and  people  were  baptized  by  the  apostle 
Thaddcus.  Their  second  conversion,  after  re- 
lapsing into  idolatry,  was  about  a.d.  319, 
when  Gregory,  the  "  Illuminator,"  an  Arme- 
nian of  royal  descent,  having  himself  embraced 
the  Christian  faith,  induced  the  king  and  his 
people  to  do  the  same. 

The  limits  of  Armenia,  like  those  of  Assyria, 
have  differed  at  different  times,  as  the  nation 
were  able  to  overrun  and  annex  adjacent  terri- 
tory, or  were  themselves  overcome  ;  and  it  is 
from  this  fact  that  different  writers  give  con- 
flicting accounts  of  its  area,  which  may  be 
somewhat  loosely  defined  as  embracing  the  ter- 
ritory extending  from  38°  to  48°  east  longitude, 
and  from  38°  to  41°  north  latitude.  The  country 
is  bounded  on  the  north  by  the  Black  Sea  and 
Georgia,  on  the  east  by  the  Caspian  Sea  and 
Persia,  on  the  south  by  Mesopotamia*  and  an- 

*  Armenia  is  now  partitioned  between  Persia,  Russia,  and  Turkey, 
the  last  having  the  largest  portion. 


DIVISIONS. 


^ — -  41 


(lent  Assyria,  and  on  the  west  by  Asia  Mi- 
nor.* Within  the  one  hundred  and  seventy 
thousand  square  miles  embraced  in  the  Mission 
to  Eastern  Turkey  is  found  every  variety  of 
natural  scenery,  surface,  soil,  climate,  and  pro- 
ductions. Lofty  ranges  of  sterile  mountains, 
some  of  whose  peaks  are  upwards  of  13,000  feet 
in  higlit,  and  others  of  less  imposing  grandeur, 
are  interspersed  with  fertile  vales,  extended 
plains,  and  rolling  prairie.  In  many  places, 
peaks  which  arc  covered  with  snow  during 
half  the  year  look  down  upon  warm  and  fer- 
tile vales  blooming  with  the  verdure  of  early 
spring.  The  loftier  of  the  twQ  peaks  of  Ara- 
I'at,  in  the  north-east,  where  the  territories  of 
Persia,  Russia,  and  Turkey  touch  its  base 
upon  the  three  sides,  rises  17,323  feet  above  the 
sea,  with  a  summit  covered  by  perpetual  ice  and 

*  A  region  of  somewhat  indnfinite  extent  in  eastern  Turkey  and 
western  I'ersia,  but  included  mostly  within  the  territory  watered  by 
the  Tigris  and  its  eastern  branches,  the  Great  and  the  Little  Zab,  the 
licdwan,  the  Batman,  and  others,  and  by  the  head  waters  of  the 
Euphrates,  is  linown  as  Koordi^tan,  its  territory  being  really  not 
distinct  from  that  of  the  other  divisions  mentioned,  but  mostly  em- 
braced within  the  same  limits,  and  faking  its  name  from  the  Koords, 
who  are  a  large  part  of  the  population. 


42'  TEN    TEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

snow,  lifted  in  naked  grandeur  14,320  feet  above 
the  plain  at  its  base.  The  valleys  and  plains  are 
usually  extremely  fertile.  The  region  has  a 
great  diversity  of  climate,  from  the  intense  heat 
of  Mosul,  where  the  mercurv  in  summer  fro- 
quently  reaches  115°  and  even  120°,  to  tliat  of 
Ei'zroom,  which  has  a  climate  resembling  that 
of  central  Maine.  Metals  are  supposed  to 
abound  in  the  mountains,  and  co])per  and  sil- 
ver are  mined  in  limited  quantities.*"  Grains 
of  various  kinds,  chiefly  wheat  and  barley,  are 
raised,  with  vegetables,  the  potato  having  been 
introduced  in  some  parts  by  the  missionaries. 
Cotton,  tobacco,  and  many  varieties  of  fmits 
are  produced  in  some  sections,  including,  in 
the  vicinity  of  Ilarpoot,  as  well  as  some  other 
parts,  the  greatest  abundance  of  the  most  de- 
licious grapes,  which,  by  tlieir  low  price,  often 
not  more  than  half  a  cent  a  pound  in  summer, 
furnish  not  only  cheap  eating  and  drinking, 
but   cheap   drunkenness*   too.     Theorizers   to 

*  Being  once  pressed  by  my  host  in  the  city  of  Peri  to  say  wliether 
it  was  wrong  to  drink  "a  little  wine,"  and  replying,  "  I'll  not  say 
that  it  is  wrong,"  he  added,  "I  only  drink  a  very  little,"  but  in  a 
few  hours  was  "  dead  drunk,"  as  were  scores  of  others  around  him 
on  that  one  Sabbath  day  of  the  year  devoted  to  Bacchus. 


PRINCIPAL  UACES.  43 

the  contrary  notwithstanding,  the  wine-drink- 
ers of  tliat  country  sometimes  get  very  drunk, 
though  it  must  be  confessed  that  their  drunkon- 
ncps  is  less  delirious,  desperate,  and  murderous 
tiiuu  that  of  their  defenders  and  imitators  on 
this  side  tlie  water. 

The  population  of  the  country  is,  if  possible, 
even  more  diversified  than  tlie  natural  scenery, 
each  outcropping  stratum  of  the  blended  mass 
of  race,  language,  and  religion — which  are 
sometimes  thrown  together  in  inexplicable  con- 
fusion —  pointing  back  to  some  political  up- 
heaving of  a  past  ago,  or  telling  of  some  barba- 
rian avalanche  from  the  East,  whence  so  many 
conquering  hordes  have  swept  over  this  region 
toward  the  West,  each  one  in  its  turn  leaving 
some  fragmentary  memorial  to  increase  and 
still  more  confuse  the  already  existing  accumu- 
lation. 

To  speak  at  length  of  this  confused  mass  of 
population,  thus  made  up  of  the  debris  of  suc- 
cessive centuries,  from  the  days  of  Nimrod,  the 
"  mighty  hunter "  and  conqueror,  laying  the 
foundations  of  Nineveh,  down  to  the  time  when 

4 


44:  TEN    YEARS    ON    THE   EUPlinATES. 

the  Turks  conquered  the  country  and  fixed  tlie 
population  iu  substantially  its  present  condi- 
tion, would  fill,  volumes  instead  of  pages.  A 
glance  at  the  principal  races  must  therefore 
suffice. 

The  plains  of  the  soutli  are  chiefly  in  posses- 
sion of  the  Arabs,  who,  with  their  "  hand 
against  every  man,  and  every  man's  hand 
against  them,"  still  vindicate  their  claim  to  be 
descendants  of  Ishmael.  No  traveler  can  safely 
pass  through  their  territory  unprotected  l)y  a 
hired  guard  from  one  of  their  tribes ;  and 
even  from  the  sultan  himself  they  levy  black- 
mail for  the  right  of  way. 

In  different  sections  of  the  southern  district, 
chiefly  in  the  valley  of  the  Tigris,  are  found 
the  Yezidees,  worshipers  of  the  devil,  an  image 
of  whom  they  are  said  to  reverence  in  the  form 
of  a  peacock.  The  logic  by  which  they  justify 
their  choice  of  a  divinity  is  substantially  that 
used  by  their  brethren  in  other  lands,  except 
that  the  latter  are  generally  less  consistent 
than  they.  "  God  is  good,"  they  say  ;  "  he  will 
not  harm  us,  and  therefore  we  need  not  trouble 


PRINCIPAL   RACES.  45 

ourselves  about  him  ;  but  that  other  spirit  "  — • 
whose  name  they  are  careful  never  to  profane 
by  uttering  it—"  needs  to  be  propitiated."  So 
tiiey  forget  God,  and  yield  themselves  up  to  the 
control  of  their  own  hearts'  lusts,  as  do  tliou- 
sands  in  Christian  lands  under  another  name 
and  pretense,  real  Yezidees  alL 

Of  a  third  class  of  the  population,  the 
KoORDS,  I  can  not  speak  better  tlian  in  extracts 
^Vom  a  letter  upon  them  by  Mr.  Allen  of  Har- 
poot.  "  Of  their  history  very  little  is  known. 
It  is  said  that  they  are  of  Persian  origin,  which 
seems  quite  probable.  They  are  most  numer- 
ous as  we  approach  the  borders  of  Persia  ;  some- 
what resemble  the  Persians  in  form  and  fea- 
tures; and,  which  is  a  still  stronger  proof,  many 
words  are  common  to  the  Persian  and  Koord- 
ish  languages,  so  mucli  so  that  one  who  under- 
stands the  two  dialects  of  the  Koordish  can,  it 
is  said,  understand  Persian.  They  do  not  live 
exclusively  in  Koordistan,  but  are  scattered 
over  a  great  part  of  Asiatic  Turkey.  Tlio 
mountains  are  their  chosen  places  of  abode. 
Tiiey  live  in  small  villages  in  tlieir  mountain 


46  TEN    YEARS   ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

fastnesses,  and  seldom,  if  ever,  in  the  villages 
of  the  plains,  or  in  the  largo  cities.  In  this 
they  take  great  pride,  looking  upon  the  city- 
people  as  weak  and  effeminate.  There  are  two 
principal  branches  of  the  race,  the  Koords 
proper,  and  the  Kdzzlehashes  (i.  e.,  '  Red- 
heads'). Both  are  divided  into  many  tribes, 
each  having  its  own  chief.  The  impression 
that  they  are  all  robbers  is  far  from  the  truth. 
Many  of  them,  indeed,  make  robbery  tlieir 
business,  but  the  great  majority  live  quietly  in 
their  mountain  villages,  pursuing  lawful  occu- 
pations. They  are  mostly  farmers,  cultivating 
the  soil  of  their  hillsides  and  mountain  i-avines 
to  supply  merely  their  own  wants.  They  keep 
herds  of  cattle  and  flocks  of  sheep  and  goats. 
They  make  excellent  clicesc,  and  their  butter 
would  be  good  were  it  not  churned  in  goat- 
skins, turned  hair  side  in,  so  as  to  have  too 
many  hairs  in  it  to  suit -a  fastidious  taste. 
Tliey  also  have  the  dishonest  practice  of  mix- 
ing flour  with  their  butter  to  sell.  Nearly  all 
the  cloth  they  use  is  of  their  own  manufacture. 
They  also  weave  carpets  from  the  strong  coarse 


PRINCIPAL   RACES.  47 

wool  of  tlieir  largo-tailed  sheep,  which  are  very 
diiral)le,  lasting  from  generation  to  generation. 
The  Koords  are  Mohammedans,  at  least  iu 
name,  but  a  great  part  of  them  only  in  name. 
They  have  religious  rites  and  ceremonies 
among  them  which  as  yet  are  little  known,  but 
seem  to  be  a  strange  mixture  of  Christian, 
Mohammedan,  and  heathen  rites.  The.Koords 
proper  are  the  most  faithful  to  the  ]\Iohamme- 
dan  religion.  The  otlier  branch,  the  Kuzzle- 
baslies,  have  more  forms  peculiar  to  them- 
selves. They  generally  try  to  conceal  their 
real  belief,  from  fear  of  the  Turks.  One 
strange  doctrine  among  them  is  that  the  Holy 
Sj)irit  dwells  in  one  of  their  number.  This 
person  is  called  Bada,  and  is  treated  with 
great  reverence,  everything  which  he  says  be- 
ing regarded  as  inspired.  Many,  if  not  all,  of 
the  Kuzzlebashes  are  pantheists,  and  in  preach- 
ing to  them  Christ  crucified,  we  must  not  be 
too  much  encouraged  by  their  receiving  him  as 
tlivine,  since  they  also  receive  every  tiling  as 
divine  ;    Christ    and    Mohammed     as    well    as 


48  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

other  men,  —  animals,  trees,  and  rocks,  —  all 
are  God  to  them." 

The  name  of  the  Koords  seems  to  have 
been  derived  from  that  of  their  ancestors,  the 
Cardiichi,  tlirough  whose  territory  Xcnophon 
led  the  retreat  of  the  famous  "Ten  Thousand  ;" 
and  to  a  great  degree  they  retain  the  bold,  un- 
conquerable spirit  of  their  fatiiers.  Many  of 
them  are  really  fine  specimens  of  physical 
manhood,  but  intellectually  and  morally  they, 
as  well  as  the  Arabs  and  the  Yezidces,  are 
very  far  from  God. 

In  tliis  category  we  may  also  include  the 
Greeks,  who  are  found  in  consideralde  num- 
bers, especially  in  the  north,  and  along  the 
coast  of  the  Black  Sea.  "  I  distrust  the  Greeks 
even  when  they  bring  gifts,"  is  as  just  now  as 
in  classic  days,  at  least  in  its  application  to 
those  of  the  race  in  Turkey.  That  Oriental 
trait  of  character  which  makes  almost  any 
man  anxious  to  oblige  you  by  thinking  and 
talking  as  you  do,  and  especially  so  when  he 
can  gain  anything  by  it,  has  a  more  intense  de- 
velopment among  certain  races  ;  and  what  Mr. 


PRINCIPAL   RACES.  49 

Barnes  somewhere  says  of  certain  persons,  that 
tliey  are  too  dishonest  to  be  saved,  for  they  re- 
fuse to  deal  honestly  even  with  their  own  souls, 
appears  to  be  true  of  the  races  just  mentioned. 
God's  chosen  time  for  bringing  them  in  will 
doubtless  come,  —  it  may  be  near,  —  when  by  his 
own  methods  he  will  give  to  his  gospel  saving 
power  among  them.  But  we  should  beware  of 
coufiding  too  hastily  in  professions  of  attach- 
ment to  the  Christian  faith  which  are  prompted 
mainly,  if  not  entirely,  by  political  motives,  by 
a  wish  to  secure  the  sympathy  and  aid  of  Chris- 
tian governments  against  the  Turks,  or  by  the 
hope  of  personal  or  national  advantage  in  any 
form.  Of  this  character,  it  is  to  be  feared, 
have  been  some,  if  not  all,  of  those  professed 
adhesions  to  the  truth  by  Koords,  and  perhaps 
some  others,  which  have  excited  high  expecta- 
tions without  leading  to  results  equally  encour- 
aiiiu";.  As  missionaries  of  the  cross  we  need 
to  1)0  on  our  guard  against  designing  hypocrites 
and  cringing  sycophants,  —  to  be  not  only 
harmless  as  doves,  but  also  wise  as  serpents. 
Of  one  remaining  jmrt  of  the  population  of 


50  TEN    YEARS   ON   TUK   EUPHRATES. 

the  district,  the  Turks,  little  needs  to  be  said, 
except,  perhaps,  to  remove  an  impression 
which  seems  still  to  exist  in  some  minds,  that 
they  are  fanatically  opposed  to  Christianity  as 
such.  They  try  to  put  down  the  rebellion  of 
their  Greek  sul)jects  in  Crete,  just  as  years  ago 
they  put  down  that  of  Mohammedan  subjects 
in  eastern  Turkey,  and  as  our  own  govern- 
mcut  put  down  that  in  the  Soutli ;  but  it  is 
little  if  at  all  more  just  to  say  that  the  Turks 
are  making  war  on  the  Christians  of  Crete 
than  to  say  that  our  own  government,  or  the 
Congregationalists  of  the  North,  made  war  on 
the  anti-mission  Baptists  of  the  South,  or  any 
other  sect  prevailing  there.  Without  entering 
at  all  into  the  question  whether  the  Greek  or 
the  Turkish  population  of  Crete  should  rule,  or 
whether  fanatical  hate  has  been  excited  be- 
tween the  different  nationalities  in  the  progress 
of  the  war,  we  should  beware  of  inferring  from 
the  existence  of  the  war  that  the  Turks,  and 
especially  the  Turkish  governniont,  hato  Chris- 
tianity ;  since  such  an  idea  once  firmly  fixed  in 
the  public  mind  might  load  to  p:jlii:ioal  dijctor- 


PRINCIPAL   RACES.  51 

ing  of  "  the  sick  man  "  anything  but  wise  and 
iK'uUhful,  because,  having  doctored  him  to 
death,  the  physicians  might  be  unable  to  bury 
liim. 

To  say  nothing  of  the  question,  whicli  as  a 
jiuliticat  one  has  no  place  here,  whether  any 
otlicr  race  are  yet  prepared  to  supersede  the 
Turks  in  governing  tlie  empire,  it  should  not 
1)0  forgotten  that  toleration  of  the  preaching 
of  a  pure  gospel,  and  the  establishment  of  in- 
dependent churches,  which  has  been  denied 
l)y  most  European  governments,  and  still  i-> 
denied  by  Greece  and  Russia,  whose  govern- 
ments covet  so  large  a  share  of  tlie  "sick 
man's  "  possessions,  is  freely  accorded  by  tlie 
Turks.  We  at  least  in  eastern  Turkey  owe 
it  to  truth  and  justice  to  say  that  the  Turks 
and  their  government  have  helped  rather  than 
liindered  our  missionary  work  there. 

Indeed,  very  much  of  the  popular  talk  about 
Moliammedan  hatred  of  Christianity  springs 
from  a  mistaken  idea  of  the  case.  Mohammr"- 
danism  may  with  truth  be  said  to  h.ive  been  a 
protest  against  idohitr}^  in  favor  of  the  worshli) 


52  TEy^    YEARS   ON    TIIR   EUPHRATES. 

of  tliat  God  whom  tlic  self-styled  prophet  trutli- 
iully  declared  to  he  "  One,  and  a  Spirit." 

In  a  mistaken  way,  indeed,  and  with  selfish 
aims,  he  really  preached  over  again  the  sermon 
of  the  apostle  in  the  midst  of  Mars'  Hill,  that 
"  we  ought  not  to  think  tliat  the  Godhead  is  like 
unto  gold,  or  silver,  or  stone,  graven  hy  art  or 
man's  device."  When,  then,  the  Turk,  who  still 
hears  from  the  minaret  the  cry  that  God  is  one, 
and  sees  ahont  him  those  whom,  like  all  the 
merely  nominal  Christians  of  the  land,  he  re- 
gards, and  not  unjustly,  as  hreakers  of  the  com- 
mand to  worship  God  alone,  al)hors  the  so-called 
Christian  as  an  idolater,  he  only  does  what  we 
all  do.  That  this  is  the  fact,  and  that  it  is  not 
ChristianitT/  as  such  which  is  so  much  disliked, 
but  chiefly  its  corruptions,  is  seen  from  the 
changed  feelings  with  which  the  Turks  look 
u])()n  tlie  Christian  system  as  illustrated  by  the 
])roclamation  of  a  pure  Christianity,  and  the 
planting  of  evangelical  duirches,  that  remove 
from  their  places  of  worship  the  pictures  and 
the  relics  of  the  saints,  and" put  in  their  placQ 
the  pure  word  of  God. 


PRINCIPAL   RACES.  53 

It  is  tlio  highest  praise  whicli  tliey  are  yet 
prepared  to  pay  this  pure  system  to  say,  as  one 
of  tliem  recently  did,  "  I  like  you  Protestants. 
Yon  arc  next  door  to  us."  It  is  an  encour- 
ao-ins;  fact  that  even  in  the  darkest  and  most 
fanatical  portions  of  the  empire  the  Turks  are 
buying  and  reading  the  Bible,  as  they  are  doing 
in  eastern  Turkey. 

The  remaining  portion  of  the  population  of 
tliis  section  of  country  might  all  bo  summarily 
embraced  under  the  term  nominal  Chuistians,* 
of  whom  there  are  various  sects.  The  chief  of 
these  are  the  Nestorians,  a  portion  of  whom 
adiicrc  to  the  pope  and  are  called  Chaldeans, 
the  Jacobites,  the  papal  Sijrians,  one  in  race 
with  the  Jacobites,  but  adherents  of  the  pope, 
and  the  Armenians,  some  of  whom  are  also  ad- 
herents of  the  pope.  As  the  missionary  lal)ors 
of  my  associates  and  myself  have  been  cliiefly 
among  the  Armenians,  a  few  lines  will  be  de- 
voted to  them. 

*  Tlioro  are  in  soitip  ?ectiiins  a  few  Jews,  who  lioro,  as  pvprywhrre 
elsf,  retail)  their  national  phy-iognoiny  and  character.  Tliey  are  very 
numerous  in  Bagdad,  to  the  sciuth  of  our  iTiis;<ionary  district,  liaving 
remained  Qigre  probably  from  the  time  of  tlie  Labylonish  captivity. 


64  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

Thej  claim  to  be  one  of  the  oldest  nations  of 
the  earth,  tracing  their  genealogy  back  to  Haik, 
who  was  the  great-grandson  of  Japheth,  the 
son  of  Noah,  and  from  whom  to  this  day  they 
are  called,  in  their  own  language,  Hailc,  or  Hais. 
They  think  their  language  the  same  as  that 
spoken  by  Noah,  and  the  only  one  which  was 
not  changed  by  the  confusion  of  tongues  at 
Babel,  and,  of  course,  the  language  of  Paradise. 
This  claim  is  good,  if  at  all,  not  for  cither  of 
the  dialects  which  they  now  use,  but  only  for 
that  ancient  language  in  use  in  their  churches, 
but  which  is  unintelligible  to  the  mass  of  the 
people.  The  name  "  Armenian "  is  derived 
from  Aram,  one  of  their  kings,  who  distinguished 
himself  in  freeing  his  country  from  invaders. 
He  was  the  seventh  of  the  dynasty  of  Haik, 
which  continued  to  sit  on  tlie  throne  for  some 
eighteen  centuries,  being  tributary  a  part  of  the 
time  to  Assyria,  till  the  dynasty  was  overthrown 
by  Alexander  the  Great,  B.  c.  325,  and  Arme- 
nia was  ruled  for  one  hundred  and  thirty  years  by 
the  Greeks,  and  tlien  for  some  five  hundred  years 
wa!s  comparatively  free,  suiTering  much,  how- 


PRINCIPAL   RACES.  55 

ever,  from  the  struggles  between  the  Eomdiis 
and  the  Persians,  who  then  conquered  and  divi- 
ded the  territory.  The  Persians  meanwhile 
strove,  by  cruel  and  bloody  persecution,  to 
eradicate  the  Christian  faith,  which,  about  a 
v3entury  before,  had  been  received  by  Tiridatos, 
tlicir  king,  and  his  i:)eople,  under  the  instruction 
of  Gregory,  the  Illuminator,  as  before  stated, 
about  A.  D.  319.  Under  the  merciless  Sapor, 
king  of  Persia,  multitudes  laid  down  their  lives 
for  the  faitli,  and  in  Parkin,  called  also  Marty ro- 
polis,  an  ancient  walled  city  of  much  strength 
and  wealth,  hut  now  in  ruins,  some  fifty  miles 
north  of  east  from  Diarbekir,  are  still  seen  the 
massive  and  really  beautiful  ruins  of  a  church, 
built,  a  century  after  Sapor's  persecutions,  by 
Marutha,  an  Armenian  bishop,  who  collected 
and  buried  there  the  bones  of  many  of  the  mar- 
tyrs.* 

Tiic  poor  Armenians  have  now,  for  nearly  fif- 
teen centuries,  been  trodden  under  foot  in  turn 
by    Persians,   Greeks,    Koords,  Russians,   and 

*  since  writing  the  above,  I  learn  that  the  churches  of  the  llarpoot 
Evangelical  Union  have  located  in  Farkin  two  of  the  Koordish- 
8j>*!aklng  missionaries  spoken  of  in  the  last  part  of  chapter  ninth. 


5Q  TEN    YEARS   ON   THE   EUPURATES. 

Mohammedans,  the  last  of  whom,  the  Turks,  now 
hold  undisputed  sway  over  the  western  part  of 
the  country,  the  remainder  being  in  sul)jection 
to  the  Persians  and  the  Russians.  Tiiough  still 
found  in  greater  numbers  within  the  limits  of 
their  ancient  country,  the  Armenians,  like  the 
Jews,  are  a  nation  "  scattered  and  peeled,"  num- 
bers of  them  being  found  not  only  in  all  parts 
of  Turkey,  but  also  in  central  and  southern 
Asia,  in  Egypt  and  the  different  parts  of  Europe, 
and  here  and  there  one  in  the  United  States, 
to  which  hundreds  of  thousands  would  gladly 
come,  if  able  to  reach  this  far-famed  refuge  of 
the  oppressed. 

They  are  a  very  interesting  people,  naturally 
intelligent,  enterprising,  and  ingenious,  as  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  in  Turkey  the  most  skill- 
ful and  successful  artisans  and  the  chief  mer- 
chants and  bankers  are  from  among  them.  But 
the  one  thing  which  raises  them  I  may  almost 
say  infinitely  above  all  the  other  races  of  the 
East,  as  hopeful  subjects  of  missionary  labor,  is 
the  fact,  that,  amid  all  their  ignorance,  sujjer- 
stition,  and  degradation,  which  are  especially 


PUiXCIPAL   liACES.  £/ 

great  in  the  central  and  eastern  portions  of  the 
country,  and  while  addicted,  like  those  ahout 
them,  to  most  of  the  sins  which  are  peculiarly 
oriental  in  tlieir  character,  and  pre-eminently  to 
lying,  still,  huricd  beneath  all  the  gathered  rub- 
bish of  centuries  of  oppression  and  sin,  is  found 
a  conscience,  which  the  first  touch  of  divine 
truth  is  often  sufficient  to  waken  to  new  life  and 
saving  energy.  To  their  credit,  too,  be  it  said 
that  the  standard  of  moral  purity  among  tlicm 
is  immeasurably  above  that  among  i\\Q  Turks 
and  some  other  races,  to  whom  may  still  be  ap- 
plied the  divine  declaration  that  "  it  is  a  shame 
even  to  speak  of  those  things  which  are  done 
of  them  in  secret." 

One  specially  encouraging  fact  is,  that,  during 
all  these  centuries  of  darkness  and  superstition, 
amid  all  tiieir  wide  departures  from  truth  and 
duty,  they  have  retained  an  almost  supersti- 
tious reverence  for  the  Scriptures. 

As  I  have  stood  in  their  dark  old  churches, 
begrimed  with  the  smoke  and  soot  of  centuries, 
from  lamps  kept  burning  even  at  midday,  and 
seen  the  white-haired  old  priest  reverently  take 


58  TEN    YE  Alts   ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

from  its  recess  a  timeworn  book  all  covered 
with  silver  crosses,  and  hold  it  forth  from  the 
altar  for  young  and  old  devoutly  to  kiss,  as  for 
centuries  past  their  fathers  have  done,  though 
I  knew  that  the  contents  were  alike  unintellio:i- 
bio  to  him  and  them,  and  that  the  fixing  of 
these  crosses  upon  the  sacred  cover,  in  the  hope 
of  thereby  saving  infants  that  had  died  without 
baptism,  was  but  another  token  of  their  own 
deep  spiritual  darkness,  yet  the  fact,  that,  by 
that  devout  though  ignorant  act  of  reverence, 
the  poor  people  were  keeping  alive  in  their 
hearts  the  feeling  that  that  book  has  in  it  some- 
tiling  more  than  any  and  all  other  books,  made 
me  grateful  to  God  that  the  memory  of  a  liv- 
ing thougli  departed  ancestral  faith  in  the  Bible 
has  thus  been  perpetuated  even  by  this  its 
dead  and  petrified  ceremonial  form. 

In  this  the  Armenians  differ  widely  from  the 
other  races  about  them.  The  Mohammedan 
accepts  the  Bible  as  God's  book,  but  with  this 
abatement,  that  it  has  been  largely  superseded 
by  tlie  Koran,  and  has  besides  been  corrupted 
by  the  Christians  ;  the  papist  calls  for  the  "  ap- 


pnmciPAL  RACES.  59 

proved  edition,"  and  that  to  be  interpreted  "  as 
explained  by  tlie  church  ;  "  but  once  convince 
tlie  Armenian  —  a  thing  not  difficult  to  do  — 
that  tlie  book  which  you  offer  him  in  his  mod- 
ern and  spoken  tongue  is  in  meaning  the  same 
as  that  which  he  learned  to  kiss  at  the  altar, 
and  he  acknowledges  the  divine  force  of  all 
which  it  teaches,  and  feels  too  tl'at  it  is  his 
personal  right  to  read  and  interpret  it. 

Another  encouraging  feature  in  the  mission- 
ary work  among  the  Armenians  is  the  fact  that 
they  are  thus  dispersed  among  the  other  races 
of  Turkey  and  adjacent  countries,  and  that 
while  the  dissevered  fragments  of  the  nation 
still  cherish  to  some  degree  a  sentiment  of  na- 
tional unity,  and  are  thus  prepared  to  feel  the 
influence  of  the  vitalizing  power  of  the  gospel 
given  to  any  portion  of  them,  at  the  same  time, 
by  their  dispersion,  they  are  prepared  to  be 
most  effective  missionaries  in  bringing  the  other 
races  to  Christ.  Their  acquaintance  with  the 
Tarious  languages  and  dialects  of  the  country 
},s  an  advantage  of  no  trifling  importance, 
which  no  other  race  has.     Those  of  tlicm  in  Ilus- 


60  TEN    TEARS   ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

sian  Armenia  speak  the  Russian  ;  those  in  Per- 
sia, the  Persian,  or  the  corrupt  Turkish  in  use  in 
western  Persia;  those  in  Koordistan,  the  Koor- 
dish  in  its  two  dialects,  the  Zaza  and  the  Koor- 
raangie  ;  those  in  the  Arabic-speaking  portion 
of  the  empire,  the  Arabic,  etc. ;  while  nearly  all 
in  northern  and  central  and  western  Turkey 
know  more  'or  less  Turkish,  which,  in  some 
sections,  they  use  to  the  exclusion  of  their  own 
national  tongue,  the  Armenian.  In  giving  to 
them,  then,  a  pure  gospel,  we  are  taking  the 
shortest  and  surest  way  to  give  it  to  all  the 
different  races  and  tribes  among  whom  they 
are  scattered. 

To  all  this  it  must  be  acknowledged  that 
there  is  one  apparent  drawback.  As  a  nation, 
they  appear  to  lack  that  stability  of  character 
and  purpose  wliich  is  needed  to  make  them 
hold  on  their  way  in  spite  of  all  interposing 
difficulties.  While  they  have  proved  themselves 
able  to  endure  persecution,  as  even  fickle  men 
may  do  from  that  manly  pluck  which  often, 
even  in  the  absence  of  firm  Christian  principle, 
refuses  to  worship   at  another's  dictatii^n,  yet 


HARPOOT  MISSION-FIELD.  61 

there  is  cause  to  fear  that  upon  trial  they  may 
be  found  wanting  in  tliat  other  quality,  nobler, 
or  at  least  more  difficult  of  acquisition,  tlian 
even  the  martyr  spiiit,  wbich  leads  its  i)os- 
sessor  to  go  quietly,  consistently,  and  persist- 
ently on  in  the  way  of  daily  duty,  making  all 
tbose  efforts  and  sacrifices  which,  even  in  tbe 
absence  of  external  opposition,  are  demanded 
in  doing  the  missionary  work.  It  should,  how- 
ever, be  said,  that  it  remains  yet  to  be  proved 
that  any  of  the  oriental  races  have  this  quality 
to  tbat  degree  in  which  the  Anglo  Saxons  pos- 
sess  it. 

A  few  words  must  now  introduce  the  reader 
to  the  Ilarpoot*  mission-field,  to  which  Rev.  0. 
P.  Allen  and  myself  were  assigned,  in  June, 
18.37,  and  followed,  in  1859,  by  Rev.  II.  N. 
Barnum,  and  in  which,  witb  our  wives  and 
others,  prominent  among  whom  is  Miss  M.  A. 
West,  in  the  female  seminary,  we  have  labored 

*  Harpoot  is,  by  the  usual  route  of  travel,  about  seven  hundred 
miles  from  Constantinople,  from  which  we  go  by  steamboat  to  Sam- 
Boon,  a  port  of  the  lilack  Sea,  and  then  on  horseback  throe  hundred 
and  twenty  miles  (about  sixteen  days'  journey)  through  Aniasia,  lo- 
cal, and  Sivas. 


62  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

together  till  within  a  few  months,  and  hope 
again  to  do  so  till  the  missionary  work  of  tlie 
Board  there  is  completed.  Previous  to  our  going 
there,  Mr.  Duumore  had  spent  two  years  in  the 
city  and  vicinity,  laboring  with  great  success  in 
gaining  a  knowledge  of  the  country  and  peo- 
ple, and  awakening  attention  to  evangelical 
truth.* 

The  field  of  labor  at  first  committed  to 
lis,  but  now  greatly  enlarged,  embraced  a  ter- 
ritory a  little  exceeding  that  of  the  State  of 
Massachusetts,  lying  about  the  head  waters 
of  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris  Rivers,  —  the  lat-1 
tor  being  the  Hiddekel  of  Gen.  ii.  14.  If 
not  the  area  within  which,  as  the  people 
there  say,  the  garden  of  Eden  was,  it  is  at  least 
near  enough  to  be  the  spot  to  which  Adam  and 
Eve  were  driven  when  expelled  from  the  gar- 
den ;  for,  learned  commentaries  on  imaginary 

*  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  object  in  view  is  not  to  give  a  his- 
tory of  the  missionary  work  in  eastern  Turkey,  nor  even  within  the 
Harpoot  field,  but  only  to  present  some  of  the  most  striking  facta 
and  principles  of  that  special  work  which  has  fallen  to  my  associates 
and  myself.  Messrs.  Clark,  Pollard,  and  Richardson  labored  for 
some  years  in  the  Arabkir  field,  which  is  now  included  iu  thai,  of 
Harpoot. 


ITAUPOOT  MISSION-FIELD.  63 

wonderful  geological  upturnings  to  the  con- 
trary, we  may  suppose  that  the  rivers  still 
found  there  are  essentially  the  same  as  before 
the  flood,  and  that  rivers  then  as  now  "  parted 
into  heads"  in  the  natural  way,  as  we  advance 
up  stream  and  not  down,  and  that,  when  the 
united  stream  of  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris  docs 
thus  "part  into  four  heads  "  of  prominence,  it 
fixes  the  location  of  the  garden  somewhere  in 
those  parts. 

The  territory  of  Harpoot  is,  like  most  of  the 
northern  part  of  eastern  Turkey,  very  broken 
in  its  character,  two  lofty  ranges  of  mountains, 
the  Taurus  and  the  Anti-Taurus,  extending 
across  it  from  cast  to  west.  Standing  upon  the 
lofty  hill  upon  which  the  city  of  Harpoot  is 
built,  and  looking  across  the  intervening  val- 
ley.:; on  the  south,  with  their  scores  of  villages, 
to  the  distant  range  of  the  Taurus,  and  north- 
ward, over  the  broken  country,  across  the  eastern 
branch  of  the  Euphrates,  seen  at  the  distance 
of  twelve  miles,  to  the  still  loftier  range  of  the 
Anti-Taurus,  while  the  distant  liorizon  to  the 
east  and  the  west  also  is  shut  in  by  lofty  raoun- 


64  TEN"    YEARS    O.V   THE   EUPHRATES 

tains  of  various  forms  and  liiglit,  we  liave  a 
panorama  of  surpassing  beauty  and  grandeur. 
A.t  certain  seasons  of  the  year,  this  extended 
area  becomes  a  vast  mosaic  of  intermingled 
sunshine  and  cloud  and  storm  rapidly  chasing 
each  other  from  mountain-top  to  mountain-top, 
and  across  the  interlying  hills  and  valleys  and 
plains.  Within  tliis  territory,  the  Koords,  who 
are  about  a  third  of  the  population,  mostly  in- 
habit the  mountains,  and  the  Turks  and  Arme- 
nians the  more  level  country.  Tlie  chief  cities 
of  the  region  are  Harpoot,  with  perhaps  *  twen- 
ty-five thousand  inhabitants,  Choonkoosh  six 
thousand,  Chermook  four  thousand,  Palu  eight 
thousand,  Chemishgezek  four  thousand,  Egin 
eight  thousand,  Egil  five  thousand,  Geghi-Kas- 
sabah  four  thousand.  Peri  four  thousand,  Mal- 
atia  forty  thousand,  Arabkir  twenty  thousand, 
Divrik  ten  thousand,  and  Bakur-Madcn  five 
thousand,  and  others  ;  but  the  great  majority  of 
the  people  live  in  villages  varying  in  size  from 
a  population  of  one  hundred  to  thirty-five  hun- 

*  "  Perhaps  "  must  be  preiixed  to  statistics  of  population  in  lup 
key,  where  the  census  is  practically  unknown. 


HARPOOT  MISSION-FIELD.  65 

dred.  The  number  of  these  villages  is  very 
great,  upwards  of  twelve  hundred*  having  al- 
ready been  located  by  the  pocket-compass,  and 
mapped  by  the  missionaries  of  Diarbekir,  Mar- 
din,  and  Harpoot,  when  on  tours  ;  for  be  it  re- 
membered that  while  the  missionary's  family 
must  have  a  home,  a  retreat  to  which  he  may 
return  to  be  refreshed  and  cheered  when  de- 
pressed and  dispirited  by  the  bodily  and  men- 
tal fatigues  of  outside  missionary  labor,  yet  he 
himself  is  confined  to  no  one  city  or  village,  is 
the  occupant  of  no  one  pulpit,  is  not  a  local 
preacher,  but  an  apostolic  explorer,  to  range 
over  and  map  out  the  country,  and  direct  oth- 
ers, whom  he  shall  select  and  train  for  the 
work,  where  to  do  the  labor  of  local  preaching. 
It  perhaps  is  unnecessary  to  add  that  this  mis- 
sionary touring  is  all  done  on  horseback,  and 
that,  while  often  wearied  by  this  slow  mode  of 
locomotion,  we  are  thankful  that  neither  tlie 
railroad  nor  the  steamboat,  nor  even  common 
carriage  roads,  have  entered  in  advance  of  the 
gospel. 

*  The  actual  number  in  the  districts  belonging  to  these  three  citioa 
p"obably  exceeds  twenty -five  hundred. 


66  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUrURATES. 


VIEW    OF    HARPOOT. 

The  accompanying  sketch  gives  a  view  of  the  southern  part 
of  Harpoot  city  and  the  plain,  and  the  Taurus  Mountains,  some 
twenty  miles  distant,  as  seen  from  the  upper  story  of  the  mis- 
sion house  given  at  the  close  of  chapter  eighth.  It  will  be  seen  that 
the  houses  are  all  flat-roofed.  At  the  time  of  making  this  slictch, 
men  were  busy  adding  a  second  story  to  the  house  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  street,  which  passes  in  front  of  the  mission  premises, 
and  they  are  seen  at  their  work.  The  waUs  of  the  houses  are 
of  three  kinds.  (1.)  Of  unhewn  stone  laid  in  mud,  since,  though 
limestone  abounds,  wood  has  to  be  brought  some  two  days' 
journey  on  the  backs  of  mules  or  donkeys,  and  is  too  costly  to 
allow  much  to  be  used  for  burning  lime.  (2.)  Of  sundried 
bricks  of  mud  mixed  with  straw,  such  as  were  made  by  tlie 
Israelites  in  Egypt.  These  walls  are  usually  two  and  a  half 
feet  thick.  (3.)  A  wall  six  inches  thick,  made  by  erecting 
a  framework  of  timber  and  filling  the  spaces  with  sundried 
brick.  The  mason  in  the  picture  is  erecting  such  a  wall,  while 
the  water-carrier  is  bringing  a  goatskin  bottle  full  of  water  to 
make  the  heap  of  dirt,  which  lies  upon  the  roof,  into  the  needed 
mortar.  The  roofs  are  made  by  laying  on  rafters,  which  are 
covered  with  sticks  or  thin  boards,  and  adding  a  foot  or  more 
of  earth,  which  is  rolled  down  hard.  The  veiled  woman  at 
the  right  is  taking  a  walk  upon  the  house-top,  while  her  neigh- 
bor, near  by,  is  taking  his  ease,  sitting  upon  the  big  bedstead 
upon  which  hkaself  and  family  spread  their  beds  to  sleep  at 
uight. 

The  main  southern  road  from  the  city  —  built  largely  by  men 
taken  from  the  state  prison,  and  apparently  from  an  impul?g 


HAItPOOT  MISSION-FIELD.  67 

given  to  road-bu'lding  by  the  labor  of  the  theological  students 
mentioned  on  page  181  —  is  seen  winding  its  way  up  the  moun- 
tain-side through  the  Turkish  cemetery,  distinguished  by  its 
erect  stones.  Armenian  gravestones  are  Uxid  flat  on  the  ground. 
The  houses  immediately  in  front  of  the  mission  premises  are  oc- 
cupied mostly  by  Armenians. 

The  houses  seen  in  the  distance  upon  the  cliff  are  inhabited  by 
Turlis,  who  always  seek  to  arrogate  to  themselves  the  clioicest 
locations.  The  remainder  of  the  city  lies  to  the  east  and  north- 
east of  the  mission  jDremises,  whicli,  fortunately,  are  in  the  out- 
skirts, enabling  the  missionaries  to  escape  much  of  the  noise  and 
filth  which  afflict  the  dwellers  in  the  midst  of  an  oriental  town. 
Our  elevation  upon  the  mountain  affords  an  additional  advan- 
tage. 

The  clusters  of  trees  seen  here  and  there  on  the  plain  show 
the  locations  of  a  few  of  the  many  villages  which  dot  that 
region.  The  trees  are  cultivated  for  timber  by  streams  of  water 
led  from  the  mountains  for  the  purpose.  The  village  just  at  the 
left  of  the  projecting  hill  which  divides  the  plain  about  midway 
is  Perchenj,  and  the  one  seen  beyond  in  nearly  the  same  direc- 
tion is  Hooeli. 

In  the  mountains  just  to  the  left  of  the  loftiest  peak  near  the 
middle  of  tliat  portion  of  the  range  seen  in  the  sketch,  raised 
far  above  the  level  of  tlie  plain  below,  is  embosomed  a  beautiful 
lake,  of  about  the  same  size  as  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  which  it  also 
resembles  in  the  character  of  its  surrounding  scenery,  as  Mr. 
Barnum  sa  s,  who  has  seen  both. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    WORK    TO   BE   DONE. 

Tlie  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  unto  leaven,  which  a  woman  took 
and  hid  in  three  measures  of  meal  till  the  whole  was  leavened. 
—  Matt,  xiii,  33. 

'HE  question,  "  What  is  the  missionaiy 
work  ?  what  object  have  Christian  men 
and  women  in  view  in  forming  missionary 
societies  and  sustaining  them  by  their  con- 
tributions and  prayers  ?  "  is  differently  answered 
by  different  persons.  There  is  doubtless  at  bot- 
tom a  general  feeling  that  it  is  for  tlie  temporal 
and  eternal  good  of  those  sitting  in  darkness  ; 
and  yet  comparatively  few  take  the  trouble  to 
examine  and  decide  how  this  object  is  to  be  at- 
tained. The  little  child  sees  the  picture  of  the 
heathen  mother  casting  her  babe  to  the  croco- 
diles, or  exposing  it  to  beasts  of  prey,  and 
brings  her  offering  of  pennies  to  teach  that  mo- 

68 


THE    WORK  TO  BE  DONE.  69 


ther  to  do  so  no  more,  and  this,  for  the  little 
child,  is  enough.  But,  for  those  who  are  to 
spend  those  pennies,  it  is  fundamentally  impor- 
tant that  they  have  some  more  definite  idea ; 
that  they  look  beyond  this  work  of  mere  out- 
ward reform  to  the  higher  spiritual  aims  of 
the  missionary  work  ;  since,,  if  we  fail  here,  if 
we  merely  persuade  the  cruel  mother  to  desist 
from  child-murder,  and  do  not  Christianize  her 
and  those  about  her,  we  may  only  rescue  the 
body  of  her  little  one  to  destroy  its  soul. 

Probably  all  who  take  any  efficient  part  in 
the  missionary  work  assent  to  this  idea,  that 
the  ultimate  object  aimed  at  is  to  Christianize 
those  to  whom  missionaries  are  sent.  And  yetr, 
upon  the  question  what  this  implies,  and  how 
it  is  to  be  done,  it  is  to  be  feared  that  some 
persons  have  very  erroneous,  and  many  others, 
very  indefinite  ideas. 

In  entering  the  Harpoot  field,  my  associates 
and  myself  discarded  the  popular  notion  that 
the  missionary  work  is  a  vast  system  of  alms- 
giving, or  even  of  supporting  gospel  institu- 


70  TEN    TEARS    ON    THE   EUPIIJiATES. 

tions  among  tlie  unenlightened  at  the  expense 
of  Christians  at  home.  Not  thus  do  we  find  it 
defined  anywhere  in  the  gospel  commission, 
nor  in  the  practical  illustrations  of  that  com- 
mission in  the  first  missionary  work.  The 
disciples  at  Jerusalem  did  indeed  have  all 
things  common,  but  only,  as  it  appears,  during 
a  temporary  crisis,  and  then  the  most  generous 
giver  was  Barnabas,  from  that  foreign  country, 
Cyprus.  Paul  and  his  companions  gathered 
money  from  their  converts  in  the  foreign  field 
for  the  poor  saints  in  Jerusalem,  but  we  have 
no  evidence  that  any  funds  were  sent  in  the 
contrary  direction.  Two  things  need  to  be  re- 
membered by  the  missionary,  at  least  in  orien- 
tal lands.  (1.)  That  he  is  in  danger  of  over- 
rating the  poverty  of  the  people.  To  one  fresh 
from  the  thrift,  tidiness,  and  comfort  of  even 
the  humblest  homes  here,  the  best  of  those 
in  oriental  lands  appear  poor  and  wretched 
enough.  (2.)  While  Orientals  are  generally 
ready  to  make  almost  any  professions  to  secure 
the  good-will  of  those  from  whom  they  expect 
any  temporal  advantage,  they,  at  the  same  time, 


THE    WORK   TO   BE   DONE.  71 

look  upon  the  advantage  bestowed  as  a  mere 
trap  by  which  the  giver  hopes  in  the  end  to 
secure  some  gain  to  himself,  and  are  thorel)y 
prejudiced  against  any  instructions  which  he 
may  give.  Had  the  physician  who  dispensed 
medical  advice  and  medicines  gratis  to  the 
Moslem  crowd,  on  condition  that  they  would 
first  listen  to  religious  truth,  but  realized  tliat 
those  who  crowded  his  dispensary  congratu- 
lated themselves  on  tlieir  shrewdness  in  get- 
ting a  real  good  in  a  harmless  wrapper  to  be 
at  once  thrown  away,  he  would  liave  counted 
his  patients  with  less  satisfaction.  When  the 
kind-hearted  missionaiy,  instead  of  tcacliing 
his  converts  the  grace  of  Christian  liberality, 
and  calling  upon  them /row  the  first  to  give  of 
their  substance  for  Christ,  practically  treats 
them  as  paupers,  not  only  giving  them  the  gos- 
pel free,  but  adding,  in  one  form  and  another, 
pecuniary  help,  and  thereby  increasing  the  uni- 
versal oriental  greed  for  "  bakshish,"  he  not 
only  harms  the  mun,  Ijut  inflicts  a  greater 
wrong  on  t!ie  church  of  which  lie  is  to  be  a 
member,  by  teaching  it  also  to  sit  and  beg.     A 


72  TEN    YE  Am   OiV   THE   EUPHRATES. 

cliurcli  made  up  of  such  members,  persons  who 
have  merely  learned  to  adhere  to  the  misnonary, 
and  sit  from  Sabbath  to  Sabbath  and  listen  to 
a  free  gospel,  y,n\h.  perhaps  the  added  argu- 
ment of  cheap  bread  from  the  missionary's 
liand  during  the  week,  can  not  be  trusted. 
Says  an  earnest  missionary,  who  has  the  mis- 
fortune to  be  located  where  such  a  church  ex- 
ists, and  who,  as  a  beginning  in  tlie  work  of 
reform,  is  resolutely  endeavoring  to  secure 
Trom  the  people  one-half  of  their  native  preach- 
er's salary,  in  place  of  the  whole,  which,  as  he 
says,  "  tliey  are  able  to  pay," — "  What  course 
ouglit  we  to  take  ?  Shall  we  ignore  this 
church  altogether,  and  labor  on  in  hope  of 
sometime  having  material  to  form  a  new  church, 
and  then  ordain  a  pastor,  or  shall  we  now  or- 
dain a  pastor  over  what  is  little  if  anything 
more  than  a  church  in  name?  We  can,  per- 
haps, get  half  of  the  salary  from  the  people, 
though  it  will  require  a  most  desperate  effort, 
and  it  seems  sometimes  that  I  can  not  stay  here 
nuich  longer.  But  I  take  a  little  courage  when 
1  remember  the  time  when  thoy  thoi  gbt  tlicy 


THE    WORK    TO   BE   DONE.  73 

could  do  nothing  for  themselves,  and  when  a 
member  of  the  church  sent  me  a  charg-e  for 
putting  up  in  their  chapel  a  stove  which  had 
been  presented  to  them  ;  and,  when  I  refused 
to  pay  it,  not  only  he,  but  otliers,  accused  mc 
of  defrauding  him.  Was  wood  needed  for  tlie 
chapel,  it  was  expected  that  the  missionary 
would  call  some  Protestant,  and  say  to  him, 
'  Here  is  the  money  for  you  to  buy  so  many 
loads  of  wood,  and  pile  it  up  in  such  a  place  ;' 
and,  as  a  matter  of  course,  the  man  would 
afterwards  come  to  the  missionary  for  pay  for 
doing  his  (the  missionary's)  work."  To  tliis 
the  brother  might  have  added,  "  And  the  mis- 
sionary was  expected  to  be  grateful  to  the  peo- 
ple for  coming  to  listen  to  liis  preacliing." 
For  members  of  anotlier  church,  which  had 
thus  been  fed  and  cared  for  at  the  expense  of 
the  Board,  when  the  system  was  changed  and 
they  were  called  upon  to  do  something  for 
tlieraselves,  had  the  cool  impudence  to  accuse 
the  missionaries  of  ingratitude,  and  to  ask, 
"  What  would  you  have  done  for  an  audience 
if  we  had  not  come  to  the  cliapel  ?  " 


74  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE    EUrilRATES. 

But  this  mistaken  sympatliy,  which  puts  con- 
verts in  the  place  of  paupers  spiritually,  if  not 
pecuniarily,  is,  if  possible,  even  more  dis- 
astrous in  its  influence  upon  those  who  are  em- 
ployed from  among  the  people  as  helpers  in 
the  missionary  work.  The  "  poor  men"  get  a 
salary  altogether  out  of  proportion  to  the  earn- 
ings of  those  about  them,  and  which  the  people 
are  as  wholly  unable  to  pay  as  a  poor  country 
parisli  would  be  to  support  Jin  expensive  cjty 
preacher.  And  these  helpers,  once  accustomed 
to  the  prompt  and  uncomplaining  payment  of 
so  large  salaries,  and  sure,  like  all  of  their 
class,  to  spend  all  they  get,  can  seldom  or  never 
be  induced  to  take  less,  or  to  depend  upon  the 
complaining  charity  of  their  own  people.  It 
should  also  be  remembered  that  these  high  sal-" 
aries  are  so  much  premium  upon  hypocrisy  on 
the  part  of  the  ministry,  and  thus  lay  the 
foundations  of  the  church  in  spiritual  rotten^ 
ness. 

The  idea  that  the  gospel  must  be  made  free 
of  expense  to  its  adherents  on  foreign  mission- 
ary ground  rests  in  part  upon  tlie  mistaken  nO'- 


THE    WORK   TO   BE   DONE.  75 

tioD  that  the  cost  of  supporting  Christianity  is 
greater  than  that  of  the  false  systems  from 
which  converts  are  made,  and  that  somehow, 
also,  adherence  to  the  gospel  system  makes  peo- 
ple poorer,  —  hoth  of  which  are  untrue.  The 
cost  of  teachers  of  religion  is  usually  in  inverse 
proportion  to  the  purity  of  the  system  taught,  so 
that  the  ministry  of  Christianized,  enlightened 
New  England  costs  a  far  smaller  proportion  of 
the  earnings  of  its  adherents  than  does  that  of 
heathen  countries.  And  shall  it  be  said  that 
that  godliness,  which,  in  lifting  heathen  or  nomi- 
nally Christian  nations  from  the  condition  of 
ignorance  and  degradation,  gives  them  the 
promise  of  the  life  that  now  is,  as  well  as  of 
that  which  is  to  come,  sinks  them,  in  evident 
breach  of  its  blessed  promise,  into  a  still  deeper 
slough  of  wretchedness  and  dependence  !  The 
material  advantages  which  intelligence  has  over 
ignorance,  industry  over  idleness,  and  virtue 
over  vice,  are  each  so  many  large  sums  to  bo 
placed  on  the  creditor  side  in  striking  the  bal- 
ance of  advantage  whicli  true  Christianity  has 
over  all  false  systems.     Observation  among  tlie 


76  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUrilRATES. 

Protestants  of  the  Harpoot  field  shows,  tliat,  to 
say  nothing  of  time  and  strength  lost  in  former 
carousals,  the  saving  of  money  by  abstinence 
from  wine-drinking  nearly  or  quite  equals  what 
they  now  pay  for  supporting  gospel  institutions. 
When  once  laboring  to  induce  a  close-fisted 
merchant  in  Harpoot  to  pay  five  dollars  a  year 
for  the  pastor,  I  ofiered  him  five  times  that  sum 
for  the  gains  which,  as  a  Protestant,  he  made 
by  his  new  custom  of  keeping  his  shop  open  on 
saints'  days,  and  was  refused.  He  well  knew 
that  the  profits  which  he  made  by  obeying  God 
rather  than  ma^i  were  worth  more  than  that. 

Feeling,  then,  that,  if  we  would  make  the 
gospel  really  a  blessing  to  the  people,  if  we 
would  teach  them  to  value  it,  we  must  offer  it 
to  them  in  its  true  character  as  God's  message 
demanding  sacrifice  on  their  part,  we  put  away 
all  false  shame,  and  false  sympathy  for  their  pov- 
erty, and,  with  the  gospel,  presented  and  urged 
the  idea  of  paying  for  it.  It  was  hard  some- 
times to  resist  appeals  from  "  poor  "  men  that 
we  would  give  them  a  Bible,  and  yet  we  never 
gave  one,  and  in  the  few  cases  in  which  wo 


THE    WORK   TO   BE   DONE.  77 

gave  a  Testament  we  had  afterwards  occasion 
to  regret  doing  it.  Tiie  recipients  did  not 
value  and  read  it.  Tracts  were  by  rule,  in 
former  days,  to  be  given  away,  and  the  result 
was  tliat  nobody  cared  for  them,  till  we  gave 
out  that  we  should  hereafter  only  lend  them, 
and  then,  at  the  people's  request,  began  to  sell, 
and  sold  thousands  of  copies. 

In  carrying  out  the  principle  of  thus  putting 
the  gospel  upon  independent  ground,  and  do 
manding  that  all  those  who  profess  to  adiiere  to 
it  should  aid  in  supporting  it,  we  had  occasion 
to  call  upon  the  church  which  had  unfortunate- 
ly, as  we  believe,  been  formed  in  Harpoot  city, 
to  select  and  begin  to  support  a  pastor.  A  man 
who  had  been  educated  in  Bebek  Seminary,  at 
Constantinople,  was  there  as  their  preacher, 
but  neither  was  he  willing  to  be  their  pastor 
and  look  to  them  for  support,  nor  they  to  sup- 
port  him.  "  You  missionaries  are  good  enough 
to  preach  to  us  and  give  us  the  sacraments," 
they  said,  "  and  we  don't  need  a  pastor." 

To   tliis  we  replied,  "  Yes,  indeed,  we  are 
too  good — at  any  rate,  we  cost  the  American 


78  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

cliur(,hes  too  much — to  stay  here  in  this  little 
city  and  preach  for  nothing  to  you,  and  thus 
do  you  harm.  You  must  have  preaching  for 
which  you  can  pay^  To  this  purpose  we  ad- 
hered, going,  subscription-paper  in  hand,  from 
man  to  man,  and  calling  on  each  one  to  prove 
the  reality  of  his  professed  love  for  the  gospel 
by  paying  for  it.  Any  man  who  appeared  in 
the  cliapel  on  the  Sabbath  for  the  third  time 
was  noted,  and  called  upon  by  one  of  the  mis- 
sionaries —  for  no  one  else  would  consent  to  do 
such  work  —  with  "  I  am  glad  to  see,  sir,  that 
you  like  the  gospel  and  its  new  preacher,  Mar- 
diros,  and  I  have  called  to  see  how  much  you 
love  them."  Some  refused  to  give  anything, 
and  such  generally  disappeared  from  the  chapel ; 
but  those  who  put  down  their  two  cents,  or  one 
cent,  or  half  a  cent  a  week,  began  to  feel  at 
home  there,  and  to  look  upon  the  preacher  as 
belonging  to  them. 

The  expected  clamor,  however,  came  against 
"  those  men  who,  instead  of  preaching  the  gospel, 
are  collecting  money  from  the  people  ;"  to  which 
the  only  reply  was  a  sermon  with  1  Cor.  ix.  1- 


THE    WORK   TO   BE   DONE.  79 

15,  and  2  Cor.  xi.  iT-lS,  and  xii.  13-15,  for  a 
text,  and  closing  with  the  declaration  of  an 
unflinching  purpose  to  imitate  the  apostle  in  try- 
ing to  do  them  good  by  teaching  them  to  love 
and  support  their  preacher,  though  the  more 
abundantly  we  thus  showed  our  love  to  them, 
the  less  we  should  be  loved.  The  public  clamor 
ceased,  and  the  effort  to  raise  the  one  hundred 
and  ten  dollars  needed  went  on,  bringing  forth 
its  own  incidental  good  fruit,  in  leading  others 
to  say,  "  We  were  mistaken.  We  supposed 
that  people  went  to  the  Protestant  chapel  be- 
cause they  were  paid  for  going,  but  now  they 
themselves  pay."  The  whole  missionary  work 
came  to  be  looked  upon  by  the  people  in  a  dif- 
ferent light,  and  undoubtedly  to  the  influence 
which  that  first  struggle  had  upon  both  the 
professed  adherents  of  the  gospel  and  the  peo- 
ple at  large  is,  to  a  great  extent,  due  the  un- 
looked-for, the  truly  surprising  success  which 
has  crowned  missionary  labors  in  that  field. 
To  the  mean,  niggardly  rich  man,  who  pro- 
fessed great  love  for  the  truth,  but,  when  called 
upon  for  four  dollars  for  the  pastor,  said,  "  I 


80  TEN    TEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

never  paid  more  than  sixty  cents  in  the  Arme- 
nian church,  and  shall  pay  no  more  here,"  we 
kindly  said,  "  If  you  are  seeking  the  cheapest 
religion,  sir,  you  will  not  find  it  here.  The 
Turks  will  'pay  you  for  turning  Turk."  The 
result  was  that  he  paid,  and,  having  begun  to 
hear  the  trutli  by  the  sacrifice  of  a  darling  sin, 
all  the  sooner  felt  its  saving  power,  and  became, 
as  we  hope,  a  Christian.  When  the  church 
pleaded  for  one  of  its  covetous  members  that 
we  have  patience  with  him,  our  reply  was, 
"  Yes,  at  your  expense,  but,  if  you  expect  us 
to  wait,  and  pay  his  subscription  too,  you  ask 
too  much.  Turn  him  out  of  the  church,  and 
we  will  pay  it."  They  kept  him  in,  paying  his 
share  themselves,  and  now,  after  ten  years,  the 
poor  man  gives  no  evidence  of  being  a  real 
Christian.  Once  inside  the  church,  with  his 
pet  sin  of  covetousness  still  in  his  heart,  no 
mere  exhortations  can  induce  him  to  cast  it 
out.  It  needs  church  discipline  to  wake  him 
up  to  a  sense  of  his  condition  and  duty,  as 
no    doubt  it   does    to  benefit   and    save   some 


THE    WO  UK    TO   BE   DONE.  81 

"  idolaters  "  in  the  church  on  this  side  of  the 
ocean. 

I  have  spoken  thus  at  length  on  this  pcint, 
both  because  to  us  it  appears  to  be  a  fundamen- 
tal one,  and  because  some  who  have  the  reputa- 
tion of  being  friends  of  missions,  if  not  of  the 
American  Board  and  its  officers  and  missiona- 
ries, hold  different  views,  and  in  various  ways 
are  doing  much  to  hinder  the  efforts  which  are 
made  to  put  the  gospel  upon  its  own  merits,  as 
not  only  worth  to  men  all  which  it  costs,  but 
as  worth  more  to  those  to  whom  it  costs  some 
pecuniary  sacrifice. 

Those  wlio  talk  of  the  "  wrong  of  taking 
money  from  the  poor  people,  which  we  are  so 
much  better  able  than  they  to  pay,"  forget  that 
it  is  taken  for  their  good,  and  not  ours,  and  that, 
under  the  Jewish  dispensation,  even  the  poorest 
were  not  excused  from  giving  tithes  for  the 
service  of  the  sanctuary.  They  forget  that 
Jesus  commended  the  poor  woman  who  cast  all 
her  livmg  into  the  Lord's  treasury.  They  for- 
get too  that  word  of  the  Lord  Jesus  which  Paul 
bade  the  Ephesian  ciders  remember,  that  "  it  is 


82  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

more  blessed  to  give  than  receive,"  and  that,  if 
we  would  see  the  members  of  the  churches 
"  complete  in  Him  who  is  the  head,"  complete 
in  their  graces  and  sources  of  Christian  enjoy- 
ment, we  must  strive  to  implant  in  the  begin- 
ning the  germs  of  all  those  graces,  including 
that  of  Christian  liberality,  tlie  most  difficult  of 
all,  and,  if  neglected  at  first,  possible  of  devel- 
opment only  to  Him  to  whom  all  things  are  pos- 
sible. I  have  been  a  pastor  in  New  England  as 
well  as  a  missionary,  and  tried  both,  and  I  would 
rather  undertake  to  bring  to  Clirist  and  to  the 
completeness  of  Christian  manhood  a  score  of 
those  to  whom  the  story  of  the  cross  is  new, 
than  to  teach  one  selfish,  niggardly  Christian, 
who  thinks  his  title  to  heaven  already  sure,  to 
put  away  his  idolatry  and  selfishness  and  live 
for  Christ.  And  with  such  an  experience,  added 
to  the  teachings  of  Scripture,  warning  me  to  lay 
well  the  foundations  of  the  churches,  I  could 
never  consent  to  plant  churches  to  be  cared  for 
without  effort  and  sacrifice  on  their  part  from 
the  beginning. 

Again,  in  entering  upon  the  missionary  work, 


THE    WORK   TO  BE   DONE.  83 

wc  remembered  that  the  commission,  which  we 
suppose  to  be  no  less  binding  now  than  when 
first  uttered,  and  no  less  sure  in  its  blessed 
promise,  says,  "-  Go,  preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature,"  and  "  Lo,  I  am  with  you,"  It  docs 
not  say,  "  Go,  gather  together  some  into  schools, 
hoping  that  you  can  educate  them  into  Chris- 
tianity, but  for  the  older  and  confirmed  sinners 
there  is  little  hope."  The  command  is  plain, 
the  promise  equally  so :  Go,  preach  the  gospel 
to  all.  Lo,  Jam  with  you.  The  gospel  is  put 
first  and  foremost,  and  the  promised  power  is 
from  Christ's  presence,  giving  efficiency  to  that. 
To  say  nothing  of  the  position,  which  observa- 
tion and  experience  prove  to  be  tenable,  that 
the  best  way  to  secure  the  permanent  establish- 
ment of  schools  among  any  people  is  to  intro- 
duce them  as  a  fruit  of  evangelization,  and  at 
the  expense  of  the  people  themselves,  rather 
than  as  a  gratuitous  agency  for  securing  evan- 
gelization, it  is  a  ruinous  error,  sometimes  prac- 
tically if  not  theoretically  committed,  to  sup- 
pose that  to  save  men  wc  must  give  them 
schools  and  seminaries. 


84  TEN    YEARS   ON   TUB   EUPHRATES. 

But  this  error  is  all  the  more  peniicioua 
when,  as  in  some  cases,  more  effort  seems  to  he 
made  to  get  pupils  into  a  missionary  seminary 
with  the  hope  of  their  conversion  than  to  lead 
to  Christ  the  perishing  mass  who  can  not  thus 
be  supported  in  order  to  save  them. 

Those  who  thus  make  education  introductory 
to  the  gospel,  in  their  joy  at  getting  a  prospec- 
tive subject  of  conversion  in  hand  are  in  dan- 
ger of  forgettin-g  God  and  his  grace,  and  relying 
upon  something  else ;  while,  if  the  pupils  are 
not  really  converted,  they  are  by  the  very  pro- 
cess of  education  confirmed  in  impenitency,  and 
made  more  efficient  for  evil,  by  the  power  which 
knowledge  gives  them.  But  the  evil  is  aggra- 
vated when,  as  in  some  cases,  the  influence  of 
these  schools,  seminaries,  and  colleges,  estab- 
lished among  a  people  who  are  intellectually 
self-conceited,  and,  as  among  the  Arab  races, 
proud  of  their  "  unrivaled  language,"  is  to 
withdraw  the  tlioughts  of  men  still  further  from 
the  simple  gospel  to  the  manner  in  which  it  is 
preached,  —  to  cultivate  among  the  people  a  fasti- 
dious taste  in  regard  to  the  style  of  their  preach- 


THE    W\*RK   TO   BE   DONE.  85 

ers.  Alas !  when  will  men  learn  that  the  gos- 
pel of  the  Son  of  God  no  more  needs  an  intro- 
duction now  than  it  did  in  the  days  of  the  apos- 
tles, and  that,  in  offering  it  to  the  perishing,  it 
must  itself  be  made  the  essential  thing,  the  one 
center  of  thought  and  love  and  action  ?  When 
will  all  Cln-istian  missionaries  learn  that  by  giv- 
ing tlie  simple  message,  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of 
God,"  in  any  sense  a  secondary  place,  and  es- 
pecially by  Avithdrawing  attention  from  it  to 
mere  education,  or,  as  in  some  cases,  to  the 
beauties  of  language,  or,  in  the  words  of  an- 
other, to  the  "  mere  fine  clotlics  in  wliicli 
thought  is  dressed,"  sinners  are  sunk  in  a  still 
surer  and  deeper  destruction  ?  How  many-fold 
aggravated  the  second  death  of  those  whoso  day 
of  prolmtion  was  thus  lost  upon  things  intro- 
ductory to  the  gospel,  whose  attention,  in  the 
liour  of  coming  death,  but  of  possible  rescue, 
was  thus  turned  away  from  the  only  remedy,  to 
the  gilded  wrapper  in  which  it  was  offered  ! 

If  any  one  thing  more  than  any  othei  in  the 
gospel  system  has  indicated  its  divine  oiigin 
and  power,  in  distinction    from  all   mere  hu- 


86  TEN    YEARS   ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

manly-devised  schemes,  it  is  the  fact,  that,  in 
spite  of  human  weaknesses  on  the  part  of  its 
commissioned  teachers,  including  that  weak- 
ness of  faith  which  has  so  often  led  them  prac- 
tically to  distrust  its  divine  efficiency,  and  to 
offer  it  as  a  gratuitous,  education-coated  pill  to 
men,  it  has  hopefully  saved  so  many.  But, 
while  a  great  work  has  been  done  in  saving  in- 
dividual souls,  it  is  to  be  feared,  that,  by  these 
false  methods  of  presenting  it,  its  power  to  bless 
communities  by  really  christianizing  them  has ' 
too  often  been  lost.  Gospel  institutions,  sus- 
tained at  foreign  expense  among  a  people  who 
have  not  yet  learned  to  love  them  by  making 
sacrifices  and  efforts  to  secure  them,  appear- 
ances to  the  contrary  notwithstanding,  must  be 
regarded  as  at  least  of  doubtful  benefit,  if  not 
a  positive  harm,  to  the  mass  of  the  people, 
since  they  are  thereby  educated  into  regarding 
Christianity  as  not  worth  supporting. 

But  an  error  which  underlies  many  others  in 
the  missionary  work,  which  is  at  the  root  of 
most  if  not  all  of  the  mistaken  methods  of  mis- 
sionary labor,  lies  in  forgetting  what  the  Sav- 


THE    WORK   TO   BE   DONE.  87 

ionr  says  of  Christianity  as  leaven,  and  regard- 
ing and  treating  it,  if  I  may  say  so,  as  itself  a 
leavened  loaf,  or  rather  as  a  complete  thanks- 
giving dinner,  to  be  transported  and  set  down 
bodily  before  the  famishing  crowds  in  heathen 
lands.  Men  take  it  for  granted  that  whatever 
good  things  we  enjoy,  as  a  fruit  of  centuries  of 
Christian  culture,  are,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
adapted  also  to  other  nations,  and  are  to  be 
transferred  to  heathen  soil ;  or,  in  other  words, 
that  the  entire  system  of  education  and  civili- 
zation which  the  Bible  has  developed  among  us 
must  go  with  it  to  tlie  unenlightened. 

But,  to  say  nothing  of  the  differences  of  lan- 
guage, manners,  customs,  race,  etc.,  as  indicat- 
ing necessary  differences  in  political  and  educa- 
tional systems,  it  should  be  remembered  that 
many  things  which  are  highly  beneficial  and 
even  necessary  to  us,  because  we  have  been 
educated  up  to  them,  and  because,  as  a  fruit 
of  our  national  culture,  they  are  peculiarly 
our  own,  may  be  not  only  unsuited  to  any 
other  people,  but,  in  their  peculiar  circum- 
Btauces,  positively  pernicious  in  their  influence. 


88  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

The  gospel  is  not  a  system,  but  a  sjstematizer, 
and  the  more  we  treat  it  in  its  true  character, 
and  leave  it  to  develop  its  own  peculiar  system, 
according  to  the  circumstances  and  character 
of  the  people  to  whom  it  is  given  in  its  simple 
character  as  good  news  of  salvation,  the  better 
will  it  be. 

One  of  tlie  first  lessons  which  a  missionary 
needs  to  learn,  in  beginning  his  labors  among  a 
people,  is  to  distinguish  between  the  essentials 
and  the  non-essentials  of  Christianity  as  he  has 
been  accustomed  to  it,  to  divest  himself  as  far 
as  possible  of  all  mere  prejudice,  the  result  of 
early  education,  and  to  put  himself  into  sym- 
pathy with  his  new  surroundings,  and  decide 
what  he  is  to  do  in  order  to  christianize  the 
community  about  him. 

And  does  the  proposition  need  proof  that  the 
one  essential  thing  to  be  accomplished  by  mis- 
sionary labor  is  to  plant  the  Christian  Church, 
and  to  set  its  members  at  work  for  Christ  ? 
Unless  we  treat  Christianity  in  its  true  charac- 
ter, as  a  leaven  to  be  introduced  and  left  to  do 


THE    WOnK    'JO   DE   DONE.  8& 

its  own  work,  the  world  can    never  lie  brought 
to  Christ. 

Men  from  America  and  Enghmd  can  never 
do  all  the  Christian  work  necessary  to  the  com- 
plete evangelization  of  the  heathen  world.  The 
churches  of  Asia,' Africa,  and  the  islands  of  the 
sea,  must,  and  can,  and  will  do  it,  if  we  only  es- 
tablish them  with  this  end  in  view. 

And  we  shall  do  it  if  we  take  lessons  of  the 
primitive  missionaries.  Wherever  Paul  and 
his  companions  went,  churches  sprang  into  ex- 
istence ;  churches,  too,  which  were  a  power  in 
the  community  about  them  ;  churches  whose 
prayers,  example,  contributions,  and  efforts 
were  most  efficient  agencies  in  carrying  on  that 
most  remarkable  missionary  work,  which  re- 
sulted in  speedily  bringing  the  then  known 
world  to  the  Christian  farth.  Says  the  apostle 
to  the  Thessalonians,  "  From  you  sounded  out 
the  word  of  the  Lord,  not  only  in  Macedonia 
and  Achaia,  but  also  in  every  place  your  faith 
to  God-ward  is  spread  abroad  ;  so  that  we  need 
not  to  speak  anything." 

Whatever  else  we  may  do,  however  many  in- 


90  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

dividual  souls  we  may  save,  our  missionary 
work  will  be  little,  if  any,  better  than  a  failure, 
if  we  fail  to  plant  such  churches.  In  saying 
this  I  do  not  mean  that  the  gift  of  the  Bible  to 
the  different  nations  in  their  own  tongues  is 
not  desirable.  This  work  may  be  well,  nobly 
done,  and  much  other  incidental  good  be  accom- 
plished. That  Bible  may  be  put  into  the  hand 
of  many  persons,  and  a  general  knowledge  of 
Christian  duty  be  disseminated,  which,  if  wisely 
directed  to  its  proper  ends,  would  result  in  still 
greater  good.  But  in  the  failure  to  secure  the 
great,  the  single  ultimate  aim  of  missionary  ef- 
forts, the  establishment  of  an  independent,  self- 
sustaining,  self-propagating  Christianity,  these 
incidental  benefits  can  no  more  be  cited  as  evi- 
dence  of  success  than  could  the  roads  made 
and  the  canals  dug  by  our  armies  in  the  South- 
ern States  be  adduced  as  evidence  of  success,  if 
those  armies  had  failed  to  put  down  the  rebel- 
lion. 

We  may  affirm,  too,  as  has  been  done,  and 
truly,  that  "  no  earthly  enterprise  has  such  re- 
sults to  show  as  this  of  missions,  in  accessions  to 


THE    WORK    TO    BE   DONE.  91 

the  domain  of  knowledge,  in  great  moral,  social, 
and  political  changes ; "  but,  looked  at  in  the 
light  of  tlie  one  great  object,  these  groat 
changes  are  but  the  canals  and  roads,  the  in- 
ternal improvements,  made  by  the  missionary 
army  on  the  territory  of  the  arch-rebel.  Tills 
may  be  well  done,  but  if  the  great,  the  only 
really  essential  work,  —  that  of  putting  down  the 
rebellion  and  locating  upon  the  conquered  ter- 
ritory efficient,  because  loyal,  native  armies  of 
occupation,  in  the  form  of  living  churches, —  be 
not  also  done,  the  help  given  to  the  devil,  in  the 
form  of  internal  improvements  on  his  territory, 
enabling  him  the  better  to  hold  it,  more  than 
counterbalances  the  mischief  caused  to  his  king- 
dom by  the  few  occasional  captures  made  from 
his  subjects,  especially  if  the  captives  are  to  be 
employed  and  paid  as  missionary  helpers  upon 
the  soil  by  funds  drawn  from  abroad. 


CHAPTER  lY. 

PASTORS,    SELF-SUPPORT,    SELF-GOVERNMENT,— 
THE    CHURCHES'    THREEFOLD    CORD. 

And  when  they  had  ordained  them  elders  in  every  church,  and 
had  prayed  with  fasting,  they  commended  them  to  the  Lord,  on 
whom  they  believed.  —  Acts  Av.  23. 

HE  apostles,  then,  the  first  Christian  for- 
eign missionaries,  completely  organized  ev- 
erj  chnrch  which  they  formed.  Tliey  gave 
to  each  from  the  first  its  own  proper  native 
officers.  Tliis  is  apparent  not  only  in  this  in- 
stance, but  appears  elsewhere  as  a  principle  of 
missionary  policy.  Says  Paul  to  Titus,  "  For 
this  cause  left  I  thee  in  Crete,  that  thou  should- 
est  set  in  order  the  things  that  are  wanting,  and 
ordain  elders  in  every  city,  as  I  had  appointed 
tlice."  Tit.  i.  5.  The  apostle  could  not  rest 
till,  with  the  other  "  things  wanting"  for  the 
organization  of  the  Cretan  churches,  that  great- 

92 


PASTORS.  93 

est  want  of  all  was  supplied,  a  pastor  to  cacli 
one  ;  and  he  takes  especial  pains  to  instruct  the 
young  missionary  how  to  do  well  the  important 
duty  of  selecting  and  ordaining  the  proper  per- 
sons. 

To  Timothy  also  he  gives  special  directions 
for  the  choice  of  bishops,  showing  that  ho  too 
was  expected  to  select  men  and  set  them  apart 
to  the  office.  The  existence  of  a  pastorloss 
church  is  nowhere  indicated  or  implied  in  i\\Q 
New-Testament  history,  but,  on  the  contrary,  the 
ini})lication  is  clear  that  each  cliurch  had,  from 
the  date  of  its  formation,  a  bishop  of  its  own. 
The  action  of  the  apostle  Paul,  at  least,  is  plain; 
and  if  any  one  thing  more  than  any  other,  next 
to  his  all-consuming  love  for  Christ  and  zeal  for 
his  cause,  gave  him  his  unrivaled  success  as  a 
missionary,  it  was  his  effort  to  secure  native  la- 
borers and  put  them  into  the  work.  It  seems  at 
times  as  if  he  regarded  it  as  beneath  him  to  do 
the  work  of  the  local  ministry.  "  Christ  sent 
me  not  to  baptize,  but  to  ])rcach  the  gospel,"  said 
he  to  the  Corinthians.  And  when  we  recall  the 
large  number  of  those  thrust  into  the  ministry 


94  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

who  are  only  incidoutally  mentioned,  wc  can 
infer  something  of  his  wonderful  success  in 
raising  up  a  native  ministry  in  the  countries 
in  which  he  labored.  Every  man,  fitted  for  the 
office,  who  came  into  contact  witli  him,  from 
his  medical  traveling-companion,  Luke,  down 
to  his  hired  servant,  Mark,  was  transformed 
into  a  helper  in  the  missionary  work,  probably 
quite  as  much  by  his  own  purpose  and  magnetic 
force  of  character,  as  by  the  divine  call  revealed 
through  him. 

"Here,  then,"  said  we  in  entering  the  mis- 
sionary field,  "  is  an  agency  no  less  available 
now  than  then  in  doing  the  same  work ; "  and 
accordingly,  right  or  wrong,  in  the  first  letter 
to  Boston  it  was  laid  down  as  a  fundamental 
principle  of  missionary  policy,  and  one  from 
which  we  have  not  in   any  case   departed,  to 

"  ORDAIN  ELDERS  IN  EVERY  CHURCH."  To  the  lit- 
tle church  already  formed  in  Harpoot,  in  spite 
of  difficulties  many-fold  increased  by  the  fact 
of  its  formation  upon  a  different  basis,  wc  gave 
a  pastor,  and  succeeded  at  length  in  imbuing 
them  with  the  feeling  whicli  churches  organized 


PASTORS.  95 

on  the  apostolic,  or  rather  on  the  divine  plan, 
have  had  from  the  first :  namely,  that  they  are 
a  church  of  Christ,  and  as  such  have  sometliing 
to  do  for  him,  and  not  a  mere  company  enlisted 
in  the  service  of  foreigners.  That  effort  cost 
so  much  that  not  till  the  autumn  of  1864  did 
we  dare  to  form  another  church.  A  little  more 
tiian  seven  years  did  we,  gospel  trumpet  and 
subscription-paper  in  hand,  compass  the  Jericho 
of  oriental  inertia  and  covetousness,  before 
enough  of  the  wall  fell  down  to  embolden  us  to 
enter  and  attempt  to  put  a  pastor  over  a  church 
of  our  own  forming. 

Had  not  the  apostolic  example  induced  us  to 
adhere  to  this  method,  we  should  have  adopted 
it  from  other'considerations.  When  Missionary 
Boards  are  vainly  calling  for  the  few  scores  of 
men  needed  for  the  proper  missionary  work  of 
planting  churches,  it  were  folly  to  suppose  that 
hundreds  can  be  found  to  act  as  pastors  to  little 
groups  of  converted  heathen  ;  and  worse  than 
folly  to  belittle  the  popular  idea  of  tlic  mission- 
ary work,  and  leave  the  heathon  to  perish,  by 
using  the  existing  force  of  laborers  for  work 


9G  TEN    YEARS    ON    THE   EUPHRATES. 

which  can  be  so  much  better  done,  and  at  far 
less  expense,  by  pastors  chosen  from  among  the 
people  themselves  ;  for,  by  manners  and  cus- 
toms, hj  early  education,  by  modes  of  thoug-ht 
and  feeling,  —  in  a  word,  by  all  which  separates 
man  from  his  fellow,  —  missionaries  arc  too  far 
separated  from  those  to  whom  they  go  to  be 
able  to  have  that  practical,  effectual  sympathy 
with  them,  without  which  the  pastoral  relation 
can  no  more  exist  than  can  the  matrimonial. 

Then,  too,  if  found,  and  fit  for  the  office,  how 
shall  the  missionary  pastors  be  supported  ?  Un- 
less the  missionary  with  his  family  adopt  the 
style  of  living  prevalent  among  the  people,  and 
like  tliem  cut  himself  off  from  that  intercourse 
witli  tlie  home-land  whicli  is  so  expensive  (a 
more  hopeful  way  of  sinking  liimself  and  family 
to  the  people's  level  than  of  raising  them  to 
his), or  unless,  as  in  some  cases  has  been  done, 
he  gather  into  one  unwieldy  cliurcli  the  mate- 
rial of  several,  and  thus  disable  himself  from 
doing  its  pastoral  la1)or,  his  support  will  be  a 
burden  too  great  for  them  to  bear.  If,  on  tlie 
other  hand,  he  gets  his  support  from  the  hoiuo 


SELF-SUPPORT.  97 

cliurches,  he  wrongs  liis  cluirch  by  making 
tliem  pensioners  on  the  bounty  of  others,  while, 
at  the  same  time,  he  misappropriates  funds 
given  for  missionary  purposes. 

But  another  and  greater  wrong  is  inflicted  on 
the  newly-formed  churches  by  depriving  tliem 
of  doing  and  enjoying  tliat  most  blessed  duty 
and  privilege  of  furnishing  their  own  ministry. 
It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  no  church  can 
live,  deprived  of  the  power  or  the  opportunity  to 
perform  this  its  last  and  noblest  function,  of 
bringing  fortli  this  its  richest  fruit,  in  a  living 
ministry  for  themselves  and  others.  Certain 
4t  is  that,  in  the  alienee  of  this  "  seed  in  it- 
self," it  can  have  no  power  of  self-perpetua- 
tion. 

Another  principle  adopted,  and  one  which  we 
regard  as  essential  to  the  effective  carrying  out 
of  the  preceding,  was  to  leave  each  church  to 
choose  and  call  its  own  pastor,  making  its  own 
pecuniary  and  other  arrangements  with  him, 
and  assuming  from  tlie  first  the  entire  respon- 
sibility for  his  support.  Eacli  little  community 
of  hoj)i;ful  Christiuiis,  previous  to  tiieir  organ- 


98  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUI-MliATES. 

ization  as  a  church,  fix  their  eye  on  some  mem- 
ber of  the  theological  seminary,  become  ac- 
quainted with  him,  and  when,  after  his  gradua- 
tion, they  and  he  agree,  are  organized  as  a 
church,  and  enter  into  the  relation  of  pastor 
and  people.  No  argument  surely  is  needed  to 
prove  that  this  is  tlie  only  way  to  secure  per- 
manence in  that  relation.  If  we  chose  or  sup- 
ported the  pastors,  the  people  would  not  and 
could  not  look  upon  them  as  belonging  to  tliem- 
selves,  and,  as  a  result,  pastors  would  be  little  if 
anything  more  than  hired  preachers.  As  it  is, 
the  relation  is  usually  one  of  much  mutual 
affection,  and  promises  to  be  permanent ;  and  by 
this  course  both  people  and  pastors  are  educated 
to  act  for  themselves. 

A  translation  of  a  "  call "  from  one  of  these 
little  commimities  to  their  proposed  pastor  may 
not  be  uninteresting.  It  was  made  by  the  peo- 
])le  of  Perchcnj,  a  village  six  miles  south  from 
Ilarpoot,  to  a  young  graduate  of  the  theological 
seminary,  who  was  at  the  time  preaching  to 
another  people,  who,  as  a  penalty  for  careless- 


SELF-SUPPOliT.  99 

ness  in  providing  for   his  support,   were  con 
demiied  to  lose  him. 

"  To  Baron  *   Bedros    Apkarian,   Evangelical 
Preacher  at  Maden. 

"  Beloved  Brother  in  the  Lord  :  Wo,  the 
undersigned,  believing  that  your  ordination  as 
our  pastor  will  be  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the 
advancement  of  his  kingdom,  in  this  and  neigh- 
boring f  villages,  therefore  entreat  you  to  as- 
sume this  office.-  When  you  have  dojic  so  we 
promise,  (1.)  That  wo  will  furnish  you  a  suit- 
able house  to  live  in.  (2.)  We  will  pay  you 
regularly  every  month  two  hundred  piasters,  :|: 
and  more  when  it  shall  be  necessary.  (3.)  We 
will  live  with  you  in  love  and  sympathy,  honor- 
ing and  caring  for  you  as  our  spiritual 
shepherd.  Praying  that  the  blessing  of  God 
may  be  poured  abundantly  upon  you  and  us, 

*  Equivalent  to  the  English  "  Mr." 

t  The  use  of  this  word  was  not  a  mere  form,  as  thoy  organized  tlie 
first  home  missionary  society,  one  whicli  has  done  and  is  doing  mucli 
good. 

t  Tlie  value  of  the  piaster  varies,  but  usually  aiflers  very  littln 
from  four  cents. 


100  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

and  tliat  your  stay  among  us  may  be  profitable 
for  the  salvation  of  the  dwellers  in  this  villaoc 
and  others  about  it, 

"  We  remain, 

"  Yours  in  Christ  Jesus." 

To  this  Avere  affixed  the  names  of  "  Pilo-rim  * 
Marsoop,"  — all  who  have  visited  Jerusalem 
hear  this  title,  —  "Pilgrim  Jacob,"  "Brother 
Adam,"and  twenty-live  others,  with  their  seals, 
those  who  have  no  seals  supplying  its  place  by 
dipping  the  end  of  a  finger  in  ink  and  imprint- 
ing it  upon  the  paper.  Then  follow  the  names 
of  these  twenty-eight  principal  men,  and  twenty- 
nine  others,  some  of  them  children,  with  sub- 
scri[)tions  varying  from  twenty  cents  to  one- 
fourth  of  a  cent  a  month,  to  make  up  the 
promised  salary. 

Before  giving  this  call,  the  people  had  been 
divided  into  two  parties,  one  party  contending 
for  a  man  named  Toma  Darakjian,  and  there 
had  Ijeon  danger  of  a  quarrel.      They  met  to 

*  All  thnse  Turks,  .also,  who  have  visited  Mecca  are  afterward?      ^ 
cailed  ilaji,  i.  e.  1  iigriju. 


SELF-SUPPORT.  101 

docide  tlic  case,  each  party  accusing  the  other 
of  willfulness,  and  each  replying,  "  We  wish 
oiily  to  know  and  do  God's  will."  So,  looking  to 
apostolic  example,  they  referred  the  case  to 
God  for  decision.  Writing  in  one  place 
"  Toma,"  and  in  another  "  Bedros,"  and  upon 
one  piece  of  paper  "  Man's  choice,"  and  on 
anotiier  "  God's  clioice,"  they  rolled  up  and 
f^liook  up  the  bits  of  paper,  and,  having  united 
ill  praying,  "  Thou,  Lord,  wlio  knowest  the 
h'jarts  of  all  men,  show  whcthor  of  those  two 
thou  hast  chosen,"  laid  one  piece  by  Tenia's 
name  and  the  other  by  that  of  Bedros.  On 
unrolling  them,  "  God's  clioice"  fell  to  Bedros, 
and  all  joyfully  united  in  sending  the  call  to 
him. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  cost  of  supporting 
a  native  pastor  is  far  less  than  that  of  a  mis- 
sionary must  be ;  the  usual  salary  of  a  village 
pastor  being  about  one  hundred  and  six  dollars 
in  coin,  and  that  of  the  pastor  in  Harpoot  city 
about  two  hundred  and  twenty  dollars.  While 
the  churches  assnmc  the  entire  "  resjionsibility  " 
ol'  (licir  jnistors'  salaries,  temporary  aid  is  giaut- 


102  TEN    YEARS    ON    THE   EUPHRATES. 

ed  to  needy  churches, in  no  case  exceeding  one- 
half  of  the  amount.  This  is  promised  only  for 
one  year,  and,  if  continued,  is  duninished  al 
least  one-fifth  each  successive  year,  till  at  the 
end  of  five  years  it  ceases  entirely.  The 
cliurches  are  thus  made  to  feel  from  the  first 
that  the  entire  responsibility  rests  on  them,  and 
not  at  all  on  us. 

A  tlnrd  principle  is,  that  in  assuming  this 
responsibility,  or,  in  other  words,  by  the  act  of 
tlieir  organization,  the  churches  are  indepen- 
dent of  missionary  control,  having  the  same  re- 
lations and  duties  to  Christ  and  each  other  as 
churches  at  home  have.  They  and  their  pas- 
tors are  made  to  understand  that  they  are  in 
no  sense  subject  to  us,  nor  to  any  man,  but  only 
to  Christ.  This,  of  course,  applied  at  first  only 
to  the  individual  churches.  The  pastors  had 
from  the  first  the  same  rights  and  duties  as  those 
at  home,  just  as  if  no  missionaries  had  been  on 
the  ground.  They  presided  in  church-meetings, 
administered  the  sacraments,  and,  with  their 
churcl'.cs,  managed  all  their  ov.^n  internal  af- 
fairs, roceiving  members  and  regulating  church- 


SELF-GOVERNMENT.  103 

discipline  as  tliGj  saw  fit.  From  this  it  natur- 
ally follows,  that,  when  the  number  of  churches 
became  large  enougli  to  form  an  ecclesiastical 
body  of  their  own,  it  would  bo  their  right  and 
duty  so  to  do,  and  to  manage  all  their  own  ec- 
clesiastical affairs.  This  logical  result  of  the 
idea  that  a  Christian  cliurch  is,  under  Christ,  to 
control  its  own  affairs,  entering  into  such  rela- 
tions with  sister  churches  as  it  chooses,  we  fear- 
lessly accepted,  without  any  attempt  to  retain 
for  ourselves  any  other  than  that  moral  influ- 
ence, which,  as  missionaries,  we  are  quite  sure 
to  have  witli  our  spiritual  children,  or  at  least 
more  likely  to  have  by  manifesting  confidence 
in  them  as  followers  of  Clirist  than  by  distrust- 
fully trying  to  retain  the  ecclesiastical  reins  in 
our  own  hands. 

Of  the  results  of  this  course  of  action  I  shall 
hereafter  speak,  but  may  here  say  that  so  far 
they  jnslify  the  wisdum  of  the  opinion  then 
formed,  that  tlio  best  way  to  manage  missionary 
churches  is  that  which  the  first  forei<2:n  Chris- 
tian  missionaries  adopted,  of  whom  it  is  said, 
tliat,  having  "  prayed  with  fasting,  they  com- 


104  TEli     YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

mended  tliem  to  the  Lord,  on  whom  tlioj  be- 
lieved." It  is  natural  to  liave  a  nervous  fear 
lest,  by  leaving  other  hands  than  our  own  to 
drive  the  cart  on  wliich  the  ark  of  tlie  Lord  is 
borne,  disaster  should  come  upon  it,  but  tliis 
fear  is  often  caused  by  undue  anxiety  about 
small  matters. 

When  the  pastor  of  the  Harpoot  church  first 
entered  upon  liis  duties,  a  ministerial  brother 
from  a])road  was  quite  agitated  by  some  trifling 
breach  on  his  part  of  our  communion  etiquette, 
and  aiixiously  inquired  whether  we  still  pur- 
posed to  leave  such  matters  to  him,  expressing 
fear  lest,  by  leaving  too  much  responsibility 
upon  the  new  pastor,  we  should  bring  disaster 
upon  the  clmrch  and  the  cause.  "  Did  he  not 
give  the  bread  ?  "  we  asked.  "  Yes,"  he  re- 
plied. "Did  he  give  the  cup?"  "He  did." 
"Did  he  do  it  in  remembrance  of  Christ?" 
"Yes"  "  Well  j  those  are  the  only  essential 
things."  And,  from  that  day  to  this,  ho,  and, 
after  him,  other  pastors,  have  given  the  bread 
and  the  wine  in  the  name  of  Christ ;  and  if  they 
have  at  times  failed  to  use  a  stereotyped  form, 


SEL  F-GO  VERNMENT.  105 

our  minds  have  been  so  engrossed  in  the  sub- 
stance, or  we  liave  become  so  orientalized,  as 
not  to  be  annoyed  by  it.  And,  better  still,  they 
have  succeeded  in  managing  the  more  weighty 
affairs  of  tlie  churches  more  successfully,  I  be- 
lieve, than  we  missionaries  could  have  done,  or 
at  least  better  than  some  missionaries  who  have 
tried  it  have  succeeded  in  raanaQ;infi-  their 
churches. 

]f  we  wish  the  native  preachers  to  feel  and 
act  like  men,  we  must  trust  and  treat  them  as 
such,  and  not  as  children  ;  or  rather  we  must 
trust  the  Master,  whose  servants  they  and  we 
are. 

But  it  is  not  so  much  mere  externals,  as  the 
weigliticr  matters  of  faitli  and  practice,  about 
wliich  we  sliould  be  solicitous  in  putting  men 
into  the  ministry.  Here,  too,  we  must  be  fear- 
less, using  our  own  careful  judgment  in  select- 
ing and  training  the  men,  and  prayerfully  trust- 
ing God  for  the  rest.  I3y  no  amount  of  timid 
liesitation  and  delay  sliall  we  bo  able  to  avoid 
all  mistakes.  Offonsos  must  needs  come.  Sonic 
of  those  set  apart  by  the  inspired  apostle  to  the 


106  TEN    YEAns    ON    THE   EUPIIllATES. 

Gentiles  proved  unworthy,  and  he  expected  they 
would.  He  assured  the  Ephesiau  elders  that 
from  among  themselves  should  men  arise  speak- 
ing perverse  things  to  draw  away  disciples  after 
them  ;  and  when  he  left  Titus  to  ordain  elders 
ill  every  city  of  tlio  "  slow-bellied,  lying  Cre- 
tans," he  doubtless  expected  that  some  of  the 
"  evil  beasts"  would  be  put  into  oiHices  of  which 
they  were  unworthy,  but  he  nevertheless  went 
on.  If  ever  there  was  a  case  calling  for  delay 
and  extra  caution,  one  in  which  either  no 
churches  should  have  been  formed,  or  the  mis- 
sionary should  have  put  his  own  hand  to  the 
work  of  guiding  them,  this  of  such  a  people  as 
the  Cretans  was  one  ;  and  yet  Paul's  policy  was, 
"  Rebuke  them  sharply,  but  go  on  with  the 
work  of  forming  churches  and  ordaining  pas- 
tors, and  leave  the  result  to  the  God  of  mis- 
sions :"  and  why  may  not  we  safely  and  .profit- 
ably do  the  same  ? 

If  not,  if  we  arc  timidly  to  keep  the  churches 
on  missionary  ground,  and  their  preachers  in 
leading-strings,  the  sooner  we  take  consistent 
ground   and   declare    ourselves   their    spiritual 


THE    CHURCHES'    THREEFOLD    CORD.  107 

rulers,  the  better,  and  proceed  to  ordain  an  infe- 
rior clergy,  whose  natural  position  will  be  that 
now  held  by  so  many  of  the  native  ministry  on 
missionary  ground. 

Lot  no  one  suppose  that  it  was  easy  for  us 
to  take  and  hold  our  position  in  Harpoot.  It  is 
one  of  the  misfortunes  of  missionary  labor  that 
it  almost  inevitably  impresses  the  people  willi 
tlie  idea  that  those  who  send  missionaries  to 
them  have  a  great  amount  of  wealtli,  for  whicli 
they  care  little  except  to  find  some  easy  way  of 
spending  it.  If  not,  why  should  wo  use  so  large 
sums  for  purposes  which  bring  in  no  gain  ? 
While,  then,  the  inevitable  impression  that  tlio 
missionary  is  rich  gives  him  greater  influence 
among  tlie  people,  and  thus  enables  him  to  do 
more  good,  his  money  at  the  same  time  excites 
their  greed,  and,  unless  lie  use  great  shrewdness 
in  money  matters,  taking  care  to  aid  the  churches 
no  more  tlian  is  absolutely  necessary,  ho  will 
cultivate  among  them  a  habit  of  reliance  on 
foreign  aid  fatal  to  real  independence.  Wo 
ourselves  erred  at  fust  in  under-estimating  (he 
ability  of  the  Harpoot  people  ;  but  our  funda- 


108  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE  EUPHRATES. 

mental  ideas  of  missionary  policy  soon  corrected 
this,  and  brought  them  up  to  a  higher  standard 
of  giving. 

By  holding  fast  to  the  idea  that  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  chnrclies  is  inseparable  from 
self-support,  and  tlien  making  every  possible 
appeal  to  their  manhood  and  their  Christian 
feeling,  we  at  length  succeeded  in  gaining  for 
the  idea  a  permanent  lodgment,  as  we  hope, 
in  the  minds  of  both  people  and  pastors  ;  but  no 
one,  who  has  not  done  the  difficult  work,  can 
realize  at  what  expense  of  effort  and  nervous 
energy  it  was  accomplished.  It  required  line 
upon  line,  and  precept  upon  precept,  repeated 
sometimes  till  the  brain  and  the  tongue  wearied 
with  the  tiresome  repetition.  Sometimes  we 
labored  privately  with  them  which  were  of  rep- 
utation, urging  them,  as  Paul  did  the  Corin- 
tliians  (2  Cor.  ix.  1-4),  so  to  behave  as  to  jus- 
tify our  good  opinion  of  them  ;  and,  again,  wo 
rebuked  before  all  some  niggardly  giver.  When 
sometimes  we  dwelt  too  much,  as  the  people 
thought,  on  remembering  the  words  of  the 
Lord  Jesus,  how  he  said,  "  It  is  more  blessed 


THE    CHURCHES'    THREEFOLD    CORD.  109 

to  give  than  to  receive,"  we  replied,  "  Seek 
and  enjoy  this  blessing,  that  we  may  stop  talk- 
ing to  you  about  it."  When  once  asked 
wliether  it  was  not  a  shame  to  talk  on  such  a 
sul)ject  from  the  pulpit,  we  replied,  "  Yes,  it  is 
a  shame  to  i/ou  that  by  your  covetousness  you 
malie  it  necessary."  AVliile  we  paid  a  part  of 
the  salary  of  tlie  Harpoot  city  pastor,  we  were 
accustomed  to  occupy  the  pulpit  during  the 
same  proportion  of  tlie  time,  leaving  him  to 
preach  elsewhere.  When  once,  in  a  pet  at  our 
faithfulness,  the  people  sent  a  committee  to  re- 
quest that  their  pastor  should  preach  all  the 
time,  we  replied,  "  If  you  wish  to  hear  your  pas- 
tor you  must  make  him  yours  by  supporting 
him,  and  when  you  do  this  we  mean  that  you 
shall  hear  him  ;"*  and,  true  to  our  intention,  we 
left  the  pulpit  to  liim  from  the  time  that  the 
church  began  to  pay  his  entire  salary,  —  from 
January,  1866. 

That  one  church  cost  far  more  effort  to  make 
it  independent  than  did  the  next  three,  formed 

•  Should  any  one  ask,  "  Was  not  this  infringing  on  tlie  right  of  the 
church  to  control  its  own  pulpit  ?  "  I  reply,  "  No  ;  for  that  jilace  of 
worship  was  ours,  not  theirs." 


110  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

in  1864  and  1865 ;  but  we  were  working  on  pa- 
tiently, encouraged  by  the  hope  of  having  no 
other  such  church  to  care  for  and  bring  up  to 
its  duty,  when,  in  1835,  by  the  addition  of 
neigliboring  territory  to  our  mission-field,  live 
other  dependent,  pastorless  churclies,  a  sixth, 
with  a  pastor  supported  by  the  Board,  and  a 
seventh,  which  half  supported  its  pastor,  were 
thrown  upon  our  hands.  It  was  as  if  an  army 
almost  exhausted  in  a  conflict  should  sec  a  host 
of  fresh  foes  coming  to  snatch  away  the  victory. 
Tlic  story  of  these  seven  churclies  can  not  be 
told  liere.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  we  took  bolder, 
higher  ground  with  them  tlian  we  had  ventured 
to  take  with  the  Harpoot  church.  With  "  Christ 
sent  us  not  to  baptize,  Init  to  prcacli  tlic  gos- 
pel," as  our  guide,  and  aided  by  the  noble  little 
band  of  young  pastors  from  our  own  proper 
field,  we  went  to  work,  refusing  to  recognize 
as  a  church  *   any  company  of  professed  be- 

*  That  is,  we  declined  to  administor  tho  sacraments  to  them.  The 
church  in  Malatia,  thus  left  without  communion  and  baptism,  ap- 
pealed to  us  to  send  a  pastor  from  some  other  church,  to  which  we 
replied,  "The  pastors  arc  not  our  servants  ;  ask  one  yourselves." 
At  theii  ••equost,  the  Uulakegh  pastor  went  and  gave  them  the  com- 


THE    CHURCHES'    THREEFOLD    CORD.  Ill 

lievers  who  should  not  wake  up  and  go  to 
work  for  the  Master ;  and,  in  a  brief  time, 
three  of  the  five  pastorless  churches  had  pas- 
tor^, paying  half  or  more  of  their  salaries,  a 
fourth  pays  two-fifths  of  its  preacher's  salary, 
and  will  soon  have  him  for  pastor,  while  a  fifth 
is  practically  dead  ;  the  church  with  the  Board's 
pastor  made  him  theirs  by  supporting  liim,  and 
the  one  which  had  paid  one-half  of  the  expense 
of  its  pastor  and  schools  now  pays  all.  With 
one  community,  the  one  least  willing  to  pay, 
and  whose  wrath  was  kindled  against  the  new- 
comers, with  our  new  gospel  of  "  Give,  give," 
we  labored  in  vain,  till,  by  comparing  them  to 
a  healthy,  strong  man,  who  should  lie  down  by 
the  roadside  to  beg,  crying  out,  "  Help  a  poor 
cripple  !  "  and  saying  to  them,  "  We  are  the 
men,  who,  instead  of  wronging  by  feeding  you, 
have  come  in  love,  with  the  rod  of  God  in 
our  hands,  to  smite  you,  and  say,  "  Get  up, 

muuion.  A  few  days  after,  they  came,  saying,  "  Is  it  not  a  shamo  for 
us  of  the  big  city  of  Malatia  to  beg  tlie  sacraiaonts  from  a  poor  village 
church?"  To  which  we  replied,  "It  is  no  shame  to  bog  when  per- 
eons  are  too  poor  to  do  otherwl-se."  "We  are  not  too  poor,"  they 
replied,  and  within  a  month  they  had  a  pastor. 


112  TEN    YEAns   Oy    THE   EUPHRATES. 

you  pretended  cripples,  and  prove  by  walking 
that  yon  have  feet !  "  we  at  first  relaxed  their 
sullen  faces  in  mirth,  and  then  gave  them  forty 
dollars  to  aid  in  supporting  the  pastor  of  their 
choice. 

Let  no  one  from  these  incidents  infer  that 
ours  was  merely  a  gospel  of  independence  and 
self-support.  Tiiat  sort  of  preaching  would 
not  convert  men  ;  and,  to  seciire  churches  to 
be  independent  by  self-support,  two  other 
things  are  necessary :  converts,  persons  who 
truly  love  tlie  Lord  Jesus,  to  become  members 
of  those  churches,  and  properly  trained  pas- 
tors and  pastors'  wives  to  be  leaders  in  them. 

To  securing  these  by  the  faithful  use  of  the 
divinely -appointed  instrumentality,  and  to 
training  chosen  men  and  women  to  feed  the 
flocks  over  which  the  Holy  Ghost  shor.ld  make 
them  overseers,  our  strength  has  been  given. 


CHAPTER   y. 

THE    TRUTH  READ. 

Search  the  Scriptures,  for  in  them  ye  think  ye  have  eternal  life, 
and  they  are  they  which  testify  of  me. — John  v.  39. 

IBLE  truth  is  the  instrument  to  use  for 
converting  men.  I  have  already  alluded 
to  the  fact  that  the  Armenians  have  the 
Scriptures  in  their  ancient  language,  for 
which,  thougli  unintelligible  to  them,  the  people 
have  a  superstitous  reverence,  and  that  Dr. 
Riggs  has  given  them  a  translation  of  it  in  their 
spoken  language.  The  first  thing  to  do,  then, 
in  entering  upon  the  missionary  work  among 
the  Armenians,  is  to  convince  them  that  the 
new  volume  which  we  bring  is  really  the  same 
in  meaning  with  that  which  they  and  their 
fathers  have  venerated  for  more  than  fourteen 
centuries,  and  then  to  teach  them  to  read  it. 
The  first  is,  happily,  very  easily  done,  indeed  has 

113 


114  TEN    YEARS    ON    THE    EUPHRATES. 

been  done*  and  the  majority  acknowledge  lliat 
the  "  Protestant  Bible,"  as  it  is  called,  is  sub- 
stantially one  with  their  own  ancient  volume. 

But,  unhappily,  in  the  Ilarpoot  field  the  great 
mass  of  the  people  were  sunk  in  the  deepest 
ignorance.  The  Turkish  officials  aside,  proba- 
bly not  one  in  a  hundred  could  read.  Multi- 
tudes even  of  the  Armenian  priests,  taught  only 
to  mumble  the  prayers  and  forms  of  the  church 
in  the  ancient  tongue,  were  unable  to  read  the 
modern  Bible  intelligently.  Our  first  effort, 
then,  was  to  rouse  all  whom  we  met  to  a  sense 
of  the  importance  of  learning  this  art,  and  of 
possessing  a  Bible.  Much  on  the  same  princi- 
ple as  posters  are  put  in  public  places,  we  en- 
deavored to  attract  the  public  attention  l)y  ask- 
ing every  man  we  met,  "  Do  you  know  how  to 
read  ?  "  It  was  sometimes  amusing  to  witness 
the  wonder  and  incredulity  with  which  our  as- 
sertion was  received,  that  an  adult  man,  and 
even  a  woman,  can  learn  to  do  this.  Then  too 
the  idea  cf  doing  it,  even  if  possible,  was  to 
some  ludicrous  enough.  "  What !  Am  I  to 
become   a   priest,"    exclaimed    many   a   man, 


THE    TUUril  READ.  115 

"  that  I  should  learu  to  read  !  "  But  when,  at 
length,  a  few  here  and  there  were  persuaded  to 
break  over  the  feeling  that  priests  only  should 
read,  and  especially  when  others  heard  the  new 
learners  read  of  the  wonderful  things  of  God 
from  the  newly-purchased  book,  the  popular 
feeling  changed,  and  now  a  man  is  rarely  to  be 
found,  wlio  has  come  in  contact  with  missiona- 
ries or  witli  native  helpers,  who  does  not  at  the 
least  acknowledge  that  it  is  a  good  thing  for 
every  one,  including  even  women,  to  learn  to 
read;  and  that,  though  but  a  few  years  ago 
this  was  regarded  as  sufficient  to  unsex  a  wo- 
man. 

Sometimes,  in  their  new-born  zeal  to  have 
their  wives  learn,  the  men  use  peculiarily  orien- 
tal ways  of  bringing  it  about.  Finding  in  the 
city  of  Palu,  on  the  Euphrates,  some  forty 
miles  east  from  Harpoot,  twelve  men  at  oui 
place  of  worship,  but  no  woman,  I  inquired, 
"  Where  are  your  wives  ?  "  To  this  they  re- 
plied, and  with  trutli,  "They  are  very  bittei 
against  tliis  })lace.  Tl  ey  will  not  come."  At 
the  same  time,  they  confessed  that  they  had 


116  TEN    YEAIiS   ON    THE   EUPHRATES. 

made  no  effort  eitlier  to  bring  tliem  there  or  to 
induce  them  to  learn  to  read. 

Quoting  to  them,  "  If  any  provide  not  for  his 
own,  and  specially  for  those  of  his  own  house, 
he  hath  denied  the  faith  and  is  worse  than  an 
infidel,"  and  adding,  "  So  you  see  that  you,  in- 
stead of  becoming  better  by  coming  here,  are 
worse  than  the  infidel  Turks  about  you,"  I  went 
on  my  way.     Visiting  the  city  a  few  weeks  later, 
what  was  my  surprise  to  find  all  the  women 
present,  each  witli  a  primer  in  hand !     Asking 
how  this  strange  event  had  come  to  pass,  I  re- 
ceived the  reply,  "  You  told  us  that  it  was  our 
duty  to  bring  our  wives  in,  and  as  they  wouldn't 
come,  we  whipped  them  and  made  them  come." 
Whether  the  women  were  whipped  or  not,  one 
thing  is  sure :   having  got  a  good  start  in  the 
beginning,  in  the  way  of  Christian  knowledge, 
they  have  to  this  day  kept  in  advance  of  the  wo- 
men in  other  places.     They  study  their  Bibles 
and  catechisms,  and  write,  and  some  of  them 
cipher.    Five  of  them  have  opened  in  their  own 
houses  free  schools,  to  which  they  receive  their 
neighbors'  girls,  and  give  them  daily  lessons,  in 


THE    TltUTH  READ.  117 

the  intervals  of  housework.  Several  of  tliera 
have  become  Christians,  and  of  the  twelve  pro- 
posed members  of  the  church  to  be  planted 
th'ere,  thej  are  the  most  zealous  in  the  service 
of  Christ. 

Having  by  various  methods  thus  awakened  a 
popular  feeling  in  favor  of  education,  it  remains 
for  us  to  provide  the  means  to  gratify  it. 

One  means  has  been  already  indicated.  The 
Palu  women  gathering  and  teaching  girls  are 
but  carrying  out  a  principle  of  action  which 
we  try  to  impress  on  all,  namely,  that,  having 
themselves  found  the  fountain,  it  is  their  duty 
to  guide  others  to  it,  —  to  teach  others  also  to 
read.  Many  learn  in  this  way.  A  second 
method  is  to  send  "  little  teachers,"  as  they 
are  called,  little  boys  from  the  schools,  who  go 
from  house  to  house  and  shop  to  shop,  teach- 
ing adults  to  read,  and  receiving  from  us, 
when  paid  at  all,  about  one-fourth  of  a  cent 
for  each  daily  lesson  of  twenty  minutes. 

As  a  third  means,  we  use  schools,  wh'icli  are, 
however,  supported  by  us  only  long  enough  to 
teach  ihc  first-comers  to  read,  and  to  give  them 


118  TEN    YEARS    ON    THE    EUPHRATES. 

a  taste  of  the  sweets  of  a  knowledge  of  tlia 
Bible.  The  popular  tide  being  thus  partially 
turned  in  the  right  direction,  we  either  wholly 
or  in  part  withdraw  our  support  from  the 
scliool,  and  throw  its  expense  on  the  people. 
In  exceptional  cases  of  giving  aid  for  a  longer 
time,  it  is  done  as  an  encouragement  to  a  church 
to  support  their  pastor,  and  at  the  same  time 
relieve  him  of  tlie  labor  of  teaching,  —  in 
whicli  some  engage  without  compensation, — 
and  leave  him  free  to  do  more  pastoral  and 
missionary  labor.  Thus  we  have  a  standing 
rule  allowing  us  to  pay  for  any  village  church 
half  of  the  salary  of  a  teacher  five  months  of 
the  year,  his  salary  not  exceeding  three  dollars 
per  month.  During  the  twelve  years  of  mis- 
sionary labor  in  Harpoot,  previous  to  1867,  the 
sum    of  8-3,501  *  was  expended   for    common 

*  The  fjllowing  are  the  items  of  expenditure  by  the  Board  for  aU 
objects  in  the  station  and  out-stations  during  the  same  time. 
Theological  Seminary,  seven  years,    ....       $7,470 
Female  Seminary,  four  "  ....         2,140 

Aid  in  chapel  building, 4,392 

Common  schools, 3,501 

Salaries  of  helpers,  rent,  and  aid  to  churches,  &c  ,       28,106 

Salaries  of  missionaries, 17,032 

$62,641 


THE    TRUTH  READ.  '   11& 

schools  in  the  city  and  its  out-stations.  It  will, 
of  course,  be  understood  that  every  pieacher 
or  helper  in  any  form  is  ever  ready  to  teach  the 
people,  young  and  old,  to  read  the  Bible.  In- 
deed, the  great  labor  of  a  helper  on  entering  a 
new  village  is  to  urge  the  people  to  buy  a 
primer  and  a  Bible  and  learn  to  read  them,  ho 
himself  teaching  them. 

As  I  do  not  propose  to  speak  further  of  this 
department,  1  here  group  the  chief  items  of 
interest  relating  to  it. 

During  the  winter  of  18GG-67,  in  the  city  of 
Harpoot  and  the  fifty-four  out-stations  under 
our  care,  1,129  boys,  573  girls,  and  885  adults, 
men  and  women,  making  a  total  of  2,587  per- 
sons, were  under  instruction  in  the  different 
ways  above  specified. 

But  our  efforts,  and  those  of  the  Protestant 
churches  and  communities,  have  likewise 
awakened  the  public  spirit  of  the  remaining 
Armenians,  and  the  fears  of  their  ecclesiastics, 
lest  we  get  away  all  their  adherents,  so  they  too 
open  schools,  and  in  other  ways  teach  the  peo- 
ple.     iVs   neai-ly   as   1  could  ascertain,  in    tJie 


120  TEN^    YEARS   ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

fifty-five  cities  and  villages  spoken  of  above, 
there  were  under  instruction  among  them,  dur- 
ing the  winter  of  1866-67,  a  total  of  4,980  per- 
sons, made  up  of  3,764  boys,  609  girls,  and 
607  adults.  Most  of  the  schools  sustained  by 
the  Armenians  may  fairly  be  put  to  missionary 
credit,  since,  to  sa}"-  nothing  of  the  fact  that 
their  opening  schools  at  all  is  owing  to  mission- 
ary influence,  the  great  majority  of  them  are 
now  kept  open  merely  in  opposition  to  Protes- 
tant schools,  and  would  be  closed  if  these  were 
to  cease.  Thousands,  probably  tens  of  thou- 
sands, have  thus  learned  to  read,  and  attention 
has  been  given  to  writing  and  other  branches, 
where  but  a  few  years  ago  popular  education 
was  unknown  ;  and  our  hope  is  that  the  result 
will  be  to  lead  the  entire  population  to  feel  tho 
importance  of  education,  and  to  use  the  means 
to  secure  it. 

But  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  end 
aimed  at  is  not  pojjular  education,  —  which,  as 
we  feel,  would  do  harm  rather  than  good,  if 
in  advance  of  the  planting  of  living  churches, 
•  —  but  to  put  the  Bible  into  the  hands  of  the 


THE    TRUTH  HEAD.  121 

people,  and  induce  them  to  study  and  obey  it. 
This  is  uniformly  done  by  sale,  since  to  give  an 
Oriental  a  book  would  lead  him  to   value   it 
lightly.     Other  volumes  have  also  been  trans- 
lated  into   the    different    languages    used,  — • 
whicli  in  Harpoot  itself  are  the  Armenian  and 
the  Turkish,  —  or  prepared   in    them,  and  of 
some  of  these  the  sales  have  been  considerable. 
I  have  not  the  statistics  for  the  two  years  pre- 
ceding our  location  there,  but,  during  the  "  ton 
years,"    a   total    of    35,091    volumes,   besides 
many  tracts,  were  sold  from  the  book  deposi- 
tory in  Harpoot.     Among  these  were  copies  of 
the    Scriptures,    and   parts   of  same,   11,607  ; 
Hymn-Books,  2,758  ;  Cliurch  Members'  Guide, 
231  ;    Abbott's  Mother  at  Home,  609 ;    Way- 
land's  Moral  Philosophy,  270  ;  Primers,  7,315  ; 
Doddridge's   Rise    and    Progress,   196 ;    Mary 
Lothrop,  333  ;  Pilgrim's  Progress,  316  ;  Saint's 
Rest,    258  ;    Commentary   on    Matthew,   547 ; 
James's  Anxious  Inquirer,    251 ;    CatSchisms, 
1,488  ;    of    a    book    of    Prayers    for    various 
classes,  2,072;  and  1,700   copies  of  an   excel- 
lent little  book,  a  sort  of  "  Call  to  the  Uncon- 


122  TEN    TEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

verted,"    prepared   by   the  pastor  of  the    cit^ 
church. 

The  comparative  smallness  of  these  sales  ia 
accounted  for  by  the  fact,  that,  almost  without 
exception,  those  who  bought  the  books  were 
first  taught  to  read  them. 

And  this  sowing  of  tiie  good  seed  of  the 
Word  has,  in  many  cases,  been  followed  by  a 
rich  spiritual  harvest.  A  few  from  among 
many  striking  incidents  are  given,  sliowiug  that 
the  best  way  to  m  iko  men  acquainted  with 
that  eternal  life  whicli  is  in  the  Son  of  God  is 
to  induce  them  to  search  the  Scriptures,  which 
testify  of  him. 

In  the  village  of  Bizmishcn,  some  nine 
miles  west  from  Harpoot,  was  a  man  by  the 
name  of  Magliak,  a  manufacturer  and  j)eddler 
of  sesame  oil,  who  was  so  notorious  for  his 
shrewdness  in  cheating  his  customers  tliat  he 
was  known  throughout  all  the  region  by  the 
nickname,  "  Tiiief  Maghak."  He  was  per- 
suaded to  buy  a  Bible  and  a  primer,  and  began 
from  that  to  be  known  as  "  Protc  Maghak," 
which  was   then    a  term  of  even    greater   re- 


THE    TIWTH  READ.  123 

proacli ;  lor,  besides  being  an  abbreviation  of 
the  word  Protestant,  "  Prote,"  with  an  almost 
imperceptible  change  of  tone,  is  made  to  mean 
a  leper,  and  is  used  with  this  double  meaning. 
Taking  a  lesson  from  every  reader  whom  he 
met,  Tliief  Maghak  in  time  learned  to  read  his 
Bible,  and  to  feel  its  power.      He  became  an 
honest  man,  so  much  so  as  to  be  as  noted  for  his 
honestv  as  he  had  been  for  his  cheating.     The 
Turkish  owner  of  the  soil  which  he  cultivates 
now  never  measures  his  share  of  the  crop  which 
Magliak  brings  him.     He  knows  that  it  is  right. 
Better  still,  he   became  a  humble,  earnest, 
consistent   Chri£*tian,  and   such   has   been   his 
influence  in  his  native  village  tliat  "  Prote  "  no 
longer  means  there  a  leper,  but  an  honest  man. 
Others,  including  his  two  brothers  and  all  the 
members  of  his  own  household,  have  learned  to 
read  and  to  love  the  Bible.     As  one  fruit  of  his 
efforts,  the  people  of  the  village,  with  a  little  aid 
from  us,  built  during  186G  a  good  chapel,  in 
which  an  audience  worship  averaging  seventy 
the  past  year,  and  increasing  in  numl)cr.    They 
pay   one-third  of  their  preacher's  salary,  and 


124  TEN    YEARS   ON   THE   EUPTfRATES. 

hope  soon  to  have  him  for  pastor,  some  twelve 
persons  in  the  village  being  liopefnl  Christians. 
Meanwhile,  he  has  not  been  idle  as  a  Chris- 
tian in  his  oil-peddling  tours.  Some  four  years 
ago,  he  succeeded  in  selling  a  Bible  to  a  man  in 
Najaran,  an  Armenian  village  forty  miles  dis- 
tant from  Bizmishen,  in  the  Koordish  Moun- 
tains east  from  Harpoot.  Tliere,  as  before  in 
Bizmishen,  the  one  Bible  remained,  and  did  its 
silent  work.  Its  one  reader  found  three  com- 
panions to  listen ;  but,  as  Najaran  is  in  a  wild 
region  little  frequented  by  us,  we  knew  nothing 
of  the  Bible  or  its  readers,  except  as  report  said 
tlicrc  was  a  "  Prote  "  in  Najaran.  But,  in  the 
winter  of  1836-67,  the  native  helper  in  a  village 
in  the  district  went  with  several  companions  to 
visit  the  place.  To  his  and  their  surprise,  the 
villagers  met  them  on  the  outskirts  of  the 
place,  and  gave  them  a  severe  beating,  leaving 
the  helper  senseless  on  the  snow,  for  dead. 
This  was  the  way  these  wild  men  took  to  pre- 
vent outside  sympathy  from  reaching  and  en- 
couraging the  little  band  of  Bible  men  inside. 
They    then   returned   to    them,  saying,   "  Now 


THE    TRUTH  BEAD.  125 

comes  your  turn  to  be  beaten.  You  invited 
these  'Protes'  to  our  village."  Two  of  tho 
four  were  beaten,  one  fled,  and  one,  a  man  of 
some  influence,  intimidated  the  crowd  by  daring 
them  to  touch  him. 

They,  with  the  helper,  then  came  to  Harpoot, 
saying,  "  We  do  not  wish  our  abusers  pun- 
ished. We  have  set  down  the  beating  to  our  ac- 
count with  the  Lord  'Jesus,  and  we  only  ask 
that  you  give  us  a  preacher."  We  gave  them 
the  only  one  available,  an  uneducated  man,  a 
member  of  the  city  church.  He  went.  The 
mob  drove  him  out.  We  appealed  to  the 
pasha,  the  Turkish  ruler  of  Harpoot,  who 
sent  the  helper  back  again.  Again  the  mob 
drove  him  out,  and  again  the  pasha  put  him 
back ;  and  this  time  the  mob  desisted  from  vio- 
lence, saying,  "  These  Protes  are  sure  to  con- 
quer.    'Tis  said  they  never  give  up." 

The  four  Bible  men  then  bought  an  old 
house  at  an  expensS  of  about  thirty  dollars, 
wliicli  they  paid  tliemselves,  and  appealed  to 
us  for  the  one  hundred  dollars  additional 
needed  to  make  it  a  suitable  place  of  worship. 


126  TEN    YEAnS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

Wc  conlJ  not  aid  them  so  mucli ;  and  mean- 
while an  audience  of  thirty  men,  women,  and 
children  began  to  meet  in  another  place  to  heai 
the  Bible  read  and  explained,  and  to  endure 
persecution  as  "  Protes." 

And  now  a  letter  from  Harpoot  tells  of 
other  fruit  from  that  Bible  in  the  hands  of 
Maghak.  Six  miles  north-west  from  the  city 
is  Korpeh,  a  large  Armenian  village,  where  for 
ten  years  we  tried  in  vain  to  gain  entrance  for  , 
the  truth.  The  people  were  exceedingly  bitter 
in  their  hostility,  using  violence  to  keep  out 
persons  who  went  there  to  talk  with  them.  The 
Turkish  owner  of  the  soil,  Osman  Bey,  recently 
complained  to  the  missionaries  of  the  attempts 
of  the  Protestants  to  enter  a  place  where  the 
people  did  not  wish  tliem.  But  this  man  has 
land  in  Bizmishen  also,  and  just  after  making 
this  complaint  he  was  visited  by  Astadoor,  one 
of  his  tenants  and  a  neighbor  of  Maghak,  and 
who,  like  him,  had  learned  to  be  honest,  and 
who  returned  to  the  Turk  some  grain,  saying, 
"  Tiie  seed  has  overrun.  This  belongs  to  you." 
"  I  wish  I  had  more  tenants  like  you,"  said  Os- 


THE    TRUTH  READ.  127 

man  Eey ;  "  this  is  tlie  first  timo  I  have  had 
seed  brought  back."  Astadoor,  pulling  out  his 
Testament  from  his  bosom,  where  all  the  Pro- 
testants are  accustomed  to  carry  it,  replied, 
"  The  secret  of  this  is  not  in  me,  but  in  this 
book.  I  never  did  such  a  thing  till  I  read 
this."  The  result  was  that  the  Turk  ordered 
his  agent  in  Korpeh  to  rent  a  house  for  a  Pro- 
testant preacher  to  go  there  and  teach  the  gos- 
.  pel  of  honesty  to  his  tenants. 

Some  years  since,  a  man  in  the  city  of  Har- 
poot,  named  Kevork  Dashjian,*  seeing  a  Bi- 
ble lying  neglected  upon  a  shelf  in  the  house 
of  the  careless  owner,  borrowed  it,  and,  being 
able  to  read,  soon  became  interested  in  its  con- 
tents. But  meanwhile  the  owner  called  for  tlie 
.  book.  Kevork,  who  was  poor,  was  thinking 
what  he  should  do,  when  unexpectedly  a  man 
paid  him  upon  an  old  debt  one  dollar  and 
sixty  cents,  just  the  price  of  a  Bible.     "  This, 


>> 


*  Kevork  is  "  George,"  and  Dashjian  denotes  his  business -of  stone- 
cutting.  He  is,  tlien,  "  George  Stone,"  and,  as  Protestantism  is  (ixiiig 
tlie  habit  of  rotaiuing  family  naiiios,  his  children,  wliatover  their  pur- 
Buits,  will  be  known  as  Stone.  We  thus  sec  going  on  about  us  that 
process  wliicli,  in  earlier  ages,  fixed  family  names  in  English. 


128  TEN   TEARS   ON   TUE   EUPHRATES. 

said  he,  "  is  God's  voice  telling  me  to  buy  a 
Bible."  He  did  so,  read  it,  and  soon  appeared 
in  our  meetings,  a  serious-minded  inquirer. 
He  became  a  true  Christian  and  an  intelligent, 
useful  member  of  the  church,  together  with 
seven  other  members  of  his  large  family.* 

Neighbor  to  him  lived  a  man  reputed  to  be 
the  vilest  person  in  the  city  ;  one  who,  though 
an  Armenian,  was  addicted  to  crimes  regarded 
as  peculiarly  Turkish,  or  rather  heathenish. 
He  was  one  of  those  of  whom  the  apostle  says 
"  that  it  is  a  shame  even  to  speak  of  those  things 
which  are  done  of  them  in  secret."  He  not 
only  did  the  same,  but  had  pleasure  in  them 
that  did  them.  He  was  so  notoriously  vile  that 
even  the  Armenians  regarded  their  church  as 
polluted  by  his  presence.  All  efforts  to  reach 
and  save  him  were  vain,  till  one  day  he  met  a 
poor  old  man,  a  member  of  the  city  church,  one 
who  found  the  Saviour  when  past  the  allotted 
threescore  years  and  ten,  and  who,  in  his  age 
and  infirmity,  often  says  to  us,  "  I  have  one 

*  The  patriarchal  custom  of  all  the  sons'  remaining  at  homo,  sub* 
ject,  with  their  children,  to  their  father,  is  still  continued. 


THE    TRUTH  READ.  129 

foot  ill  the  grave  now,  and  the  other  will  soon 
be  there.     When  you  bury  me,  be  sure  to  sing, 

'  Joyfully,  joyfully  onward  we  move, 
Bound  to  the  realms  of  bright  spirits  above.'  " 

r 

Meeting  the  wretched  man  in  the  street,  and 
pulling  a  copy  of  the  Psalms  from  his  bosom, 
tlie  old  man  persuaded  him  to  buy  it.  He 
already  knew  how  to  read,  and  the  little  book 
soon  awakened  his  slumbering  conscience.  Go- 
ing on  business  to  a  city  a  week's  journey  dis- 
tant, he  accidentally  left  the  little  volume  at 
home,  but,  happening  to  mention  some  of  its 
wonderful  words  to  the  Turks  with  whom  he  was 
doing  business,  they  sent  a  man  to  get  it,  and 
had  it  read.  Meanwhile,  burdened  with  a  sense 
of  sin,  he  returned  home,  and  soon,  to  the  sur- 
prise of  all,  found  his  way  to  a  Protestant 
prayer-meeting,  and  rose  begging  them  to  pray 
for  liim.  "  Oil,"  said  he,  "  I  have  been  a  dread- 
ful sinner  !  Satan  has  bound  me  hand  and  foot. 
Pray  for  me  that  I  may  be  set  free  !  "  For 
some  time  lie  continued  in  the  deepest  distress, 
uiit  at  last  found  peace,  wondoi'ing  at  the  love 


loO  TEN^    YEARS    ON    THE   EUPIIUATES. 

which  could  save  such  as  ho.  Ho  was  indeed 
in  the  condition  of  the  prodigal  son.  His 
vices  had  reduced  him  to  extreme  poverty.  lie 
had  not  money  enough  to  buy  the  Bible  which 
he  needed  and  desired,  but  wlien,  in  a  prayer- 
meeting,  it  was  mentioned  that  "a  poor  brother" 
needed  a  Bible,  all  but  the  twenty  cents  whicli  it 
was  thouglit  best  that  ho  should  pay  was  at  once 
laid  upon  the  desk. 

With  his  new-born  love  for  the  Saviour,  he 
went  to  tlie  Kevork  before  mentioned,  saying, 
"  Come,  brotlier,  I  don't  know  anything,  but 
you  do ;  come  with  me  to  the  villages.  You  do 
the  preaching  and  I'll  take  the  beatings."  Tlicy 
went  first  to  the  Korpeh  mentioned,  and  he  re- 
ceived from  the  people  the  expected  beating. 
Again  he  went,  and  again  was  driven  away  ;  but 
the  third  time  one  of  his  companions,  a  burlj 
blacksmith  from  the  city,  said  to  the  people, 
"  If  you  stone  us,  we  shall-continue  to  come,  till 
all  the  Protestants  in  the  city  will  pour  into 
your  village  ;  but  let  us  alone,  and  only  two  will 
come  to  talk,  and  you  can,  if  you  wish,  shut 
your  ears  against  them."     Tlie  people  heeded 


THE    TRUTH  READ.  131 

his  advice,  and  in  a  short  time,  as  before  re- 
lated, the  Turkish  owner  of  the  soil,  Osman 
Bej,  ordered  his  agent  there  to  lease  the  Pro- 
testants a  house.  Thus  on  the  one  hand  the 
Bizmishen  Bible,  and  on  the  other  the  Harpoot 
copy  of  the  Psalms,  have  made  a  breach  in  the 
walls  of  darkness,  superstition,  and  hatred, 
wliich,  for  so  many  years,  have  shut  in  the  be- 
nighted inhabitants  of  Korpeh. 

Some  sixty  miles  to  the  south  from  Harpoot, 
in  the  wildest  part  of  the  Taurus  Mountains, 
is  the  city  of  Chermook,  inhabited  partly  by 
Armenians,  many  of  whom  differ  little  from 
the  wild  Koords  about  them.  Among  these 
was  one  named  Harootune  ("  Resurrection"). 
His  rage  against  the  "  Protes  "  knew  no  bounds. 
He  was  a  very  Saul  of  Tarsus  in  his  hate 
against  them.  He  was  a  choolgee,  or  maker 
of  donkey-saddles,  and  one  day,  seeing  the 
Protestant  native  helper  enter  a  sliop  near  his 
own,  he  stabbed  his  big  knife  into  the  saddle 
in  liand,  exclaiming,  "  Would  that  this  were  a 
Pr(jte  !  "  Not  long  after,  he  began  to  suspect 
that  all  was  not  true  that  had  been  told  him, 


132  TEN    YEARS   ON   TUE   EUPUIIATES. 

and,  big  knife  still  in  hand,  lie  went  to  tlie 
Armenian  school  to  inquire  of  the  teacher. 
Not  getting  the  straightforward  replies  wliicli 
he  expected,  in  his  wrath  he  seized  the  teacher 
by  the  hair,  saying,  "  Sir,  I'll  cut  off  your 
liead  !  "  and,  suiting  the  action  to  the  word,  be- 
gan to  use  his  knife  on  the  back  of  the  poor 
man's  neck.  The  children  ran  screaming  from 
the  room,  and  help  came  and  saved  the  teacher 
from  his  hands.  Determined  to  examine  for 
himself,  he  bought  a  primer  from  our  helper, 
put  it  in  his  bosom,  where  the  Orientals  carry 
all  their  treasures,  and  begged  every  reader 
wliom  he  met  to  give  him  a  lesson.  With 
thorough  earnestness,  making  each  lesson  his 
own,  he  soon  passed  over  the  preliminary  pa- 
ges, and  came  to  brief  sentences.  One  of  tlie 
first  of  these  is  from  Prov.  xxiii.  17,  "  Be  thou 
in  the  fear  of  tlie  Lord  all  the  day  long."  He 
must  needs  understand  all  as  far  as  he  goes, 
and  inquires,  "  What  is  the  fear  of  the  Lord  ? 
Why  should  we  have  it  ?  What  does  he  do  to 
us  ?  When  shall  I  begin  to  have  this  fear,  and 
how  get  if  ?  "  etc.,  etc.     Reading  the  sentence, 


THE    TRUTH  READ.  133 

"  Avoid  sin  and  fear  God,  and  your  soul  will 
be  safe  in  his  hands,"  he  exclaimed,  "  Oh  that 
God  would  take  ray  soul  wholly  into  his  hands, 
and  hold  it  fast !  "  To  use  his  own  expression, 
he  "  loved  his  primer  as  his  eyes,"  and  ap- 
pealed to  it  on  all  occasions,  saying,  "  Doesn't 
my  primer  say  so  ?  "  "  Oh,  when  shall  I  be 
able  to  read  my  Bible  !  "  he  often  exclaimed. 
He  forsook  the  Armenian  church  entirely,  and 
became  a  constant  attendant  at  the  Protestant 
chapel,  and,  by  his  zeal  for  the  truth,  became 
a  standing,  or  rather  a  moving  rebuke  to  all  for- 
mal, cold-hearted  Protestants,  He  rebuked 
one  who  attended  chapel  but  half  a  day  on  the 
Sabljath,  inquiring  whether  it  was  not  well  to 
meet  with  God's  people  all  day. 

To  another,  who  drank  a  glass  of  wine,  and, 
by  way  of  excuse,  asked,  "  Didn't  God  make 
grapes?"  he  indignantly  exclaimed,  "God 
made  dogs,  —  go  eat  some  dog  carcass!  He 
made  poisons  too,  —  go  eat  them  and  kill  your- 
self!" 

When  summoned  bef)rc  the  bishop  to  an- 
swer why  lie  went  to  the  chapel,  his  reply  was, 


134  TEN    YE  Alts    ON    THE   EUPURATES. 

"  To  learn  to  read,  and  for  the  salvation  of  my 
soul."  One  of  his  first  acts  was  to  call  for  tho 
Protpstant  subscription-paper  and  put  down 
his  name  for  a  share  of  the  expenses. 

"While  all  this  occurred  so  recently  that  he 
has  not,  lilce  "  Thief  IMaghak,"  been  tried  l)y 
time,  our  hope  is,  that,  having  thus  begun  to 
run  well,  he  will  hold  out  to  tlie  end. 

But  one  more  of  many  examples  will  bo 
given,  in  which  we  have  seen  illustrated  the 
power  of  the  holy  Scriptures  to  make  their 
readers  wise  unto  salvation. 

About  seven  miles  south  from  the  city  of 
Harpoot,  but  in  full  view  of  it,  among  the  many 
villages  whicli  dot  the  wide-extended  plain, 
lies  Pcrchenj,  having  a  population  of  one  thou- 
sand Armenians,  and  fifteen  hundred  Turks. 
The  entire  population  were  ignorant  of  the 
truth  till,  in  1858  or  1859,  an  Armenian,  named 
Garabed  Torosian,  honored  with  the  title,  Var- 
jabed  ("Teacher"),  because  he  could  read, 
wlien  at  work  in  a  neighboring  village  bough.t 
a  Bible  and  took  it  home.  The  first  we  knew 
of  it  was  when,  in   the  winter  of   1859-60,  a 


THE    TRUTH  READ.  135 

colporter,  who  spent  a  night  in  the  village, 
reported  to  us  that  he  found  seventy  men  as- 
sembled in  a  stable*  listening  to  the  "teach- 
er," who  was  reading  his  Bible. 

The  result  was  the  awakening  of  a  spirit  of 
inquiry  which  led  Mr.  Barnum  and  myself  to 
visit  the  place  with  a  view  to  spend  the  Sab- 
bath. Nearly  all  of  Saturday  night  did  the 
crowd  continue  asking,  not  the  usual  questions, 
"  Why  don't  you  Protestants  make  the  sign  of 
the  cross?  "Why  don't  you  keep  the  fasts? 
Why  don't  you  have  feet-washing  ?  "  etc. ;  but, 
"  Wliat  does  Jesus  mean  when  he  says,  "  Ex- 
cept a  man  be  born  again,  he  can  not  see  the 
kingdom  of  God '  ?  "  "  What  does  Paul  mean 
when  he  says,  '  I  beseech  you  therefore,  breth- 
ren, by  the  mercies  of  God,  that  ye  present 
your  bodies  a  living  sacrifice,  holy,  acceptable 

unto  God  '  ?  "  etc.,  etc      Mr.  B and  I  were 

filled  with  surprise  and  delight  to  see  that  the 

*  stables  are  common  places  of  resort  in  winter  for  crowds,  both 
because  they  are  large,  and  because  the  animals  supply  the  places  of 
stoves,  which  were  unknown  till  very  recently.  When  on  missionary 
tours,  a  usual  place  of  stopping  is  in  a  stable^  a  raised  spot  in  the 
corner  of  which  is  the  usual  village  guest-room. 


136  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

"  teacher "  had  sought  out  such  passages  to 
read,  and  that  the  people,  none  of  whom  could 
read,  remembered  them  so  well.  With  tlie 
crowd  constantly  around  us,  by  bad  air, 
bad  food,  excitement,  and  an  over-amount  of 

this  joyful  work,  Mr.  B and  myself  were 

both  made  sick  and  obliged  to  leave,  but  at 
their  request  we  sent  a  man  to  instruct  them. 
The  result  was  that  scores  at  once  learned  to 
read,  and  bought  and  began  to  study  the  Bible. 
The  Lord  did  not  let  his  word  return  to  him 
void.  In  the  spring  of  1865,  a  little  church  of 
ten  members  —  increased  in  1866  to  forty-one, 
and  twenty  other  hopeful  converts  —  was  formed 
tliere,  and  a  pastor  placed  over  them,  —  Bedros 
Apkarian,  a  translation  of  whose  "  call  "  was 
given  in  chapter  fourth,  and  who  is  now  sup- 
ported entirely  by  them,  they  also,  first  among 
the  village  communities,  having  decided,  with- 
out aid  from  us,  to  support  a  school  the  year 
I'ound.  Opposed  and  persecuted  by  their  Turk- 
ish neighbors,  —  some  of  whom  do  not  wisli  to 
see  a  Protestant  chapel  erected,  —  they  hav^e, 
the  past  summer,  erected  a  really  fine  chapel 


THE    THUTfT  HEAD.  137 

and  parsonage,  at  an  expense  of  seven  hundred 
dollars  or  more,  of  which  one  hundred  and 
thkty-seven  dollars  is  a  "  grant  in  aid  "  from 
us. 

But  the  story  of  that  one  Bible  is  not  yet 
finished.  Its  readers  had  read,  "Freely  ye 
have  received,  freely  give,"  and,  "  Go  ye  into 
all  the  world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature,"  and  felt  that  the  message  was  for 
tliem.  Two  years  before  the  church  was  formed 
there,  they,  self-moved,  or  rather  Bible-moved, 
organized  themselves  into  a  missionary  society, 
to  go  two  and  two  on  Sabbaths  to  neighboring 
villages  to  read  and  explain  the  Bible,  and  per- 
suade others  to  buy  and  read  it. 

Three  or  four  miles  to  the  south  is  Hooeli, 
with  a  population  of  twenty-five  hundred  Arme- 
nians, and  a  dozen  families  of  Turks.  In  tliis 
central  and  important  village  we  had  for  years 
tried  in  vain  to  gain  a  foothold  for  tlie  truth. 
One  year  we  paid  a  Turk  twenty  dollars  for  the 
use  of  a  room  in  which  we  put  a  man  who  used 
every  possiole  means  to  do  them  good.  It  was  all 
in  vain.     A  few  persons  bought  copies  of  the 


138  TEN    YEARS    ON    THE   EUPHRATES. 

New  Testament,  and  one  man  a  Bible,  but  tliey 
seemed  to  get  no  benefit  from  them,  and  we 
sent  the  helper  to  another  place,  and  left  them 
alone.  Afterwards  we  made  another  attemj)t 
to  reach  them  by  sending  members  of  the  theo- 
logical seminary  to  visit  them  occasionally, 
but  to  no  purpose.  They  uniformly  returned, 
saying,  "  It  is  wrong  to  spend  money  to  hire 
donkeys  to  ride  to  that  village," 

So,  thougli,  at  my  first  visit  to  the  village  in 
1857,  observing  great  a{)parent  zeal  for  their 
own  superstitions,  I  had  made  note,  "  Zealous 
in  their  own  faith,  they  will  be  so  for  the  truth," 
and  with  that  hope  we  had  tried  thus  hard  to  win 
them  to  the  truth,  we  were  obliged  to  yield,  and 
leave  them  alone  again.  But  not  so  Perchenj, 
whose  Bible  readers  had  just  formed  the  mis- 
sionary society.  The  first  village  visited  was 
Hooeli,  to  whicli  two  men  went,  Bible  in  hand, 
praying  as  they  went,  "  0  Lord,  give  us  open 
doors  and  hearts!"  They  found  both,  and,  as 
a  result,  the  people  soon  came  to  us  for  a  man 
to  go  and  open  a  Protestant  school  among 
them.      We  had  none ;   so  they  chose  one  of 


VHE    TRUTH  READ.  139 

their  own  number,  who  had  learned  to  read, 
called  lum  "  teacher,"  and  opened  a  "  Protestant 
school,"  putting  our  primers  and  New  Testa- 
ments into  the  hands  of  the  pupils,  who  —  as 
the  art  of  reading  in  Armenian  is  very  easy  to 
acquire  —  soon  began  to  read  in  their  own 
tongue  the  wonderful  Works  of  God.  The  fol- 
lowing winter,  in  1864-65,  they  furnished  a 
house,  fuel,  and  lights,  to  a  pupil  of  the  semin- 
ary, who  went  to  remain  with  them  during  the 
vacation  of  five  months.  Tlie  devil  stirred  up 
his  servants  to  come  with  a  mob  and  pitch  the 
helper  and  all  his  effects  into  the  street,  or 
rather  they  foolishly  and  disobediently  came  of 
themselves,  in  opposition  to  his  will,  for  surely 
tlic  enemy  of  all  good  must  be  shrewd  enough 
to  liave  known  that  such  a  course  would  harm, 
not  help  his  cause.  At  any  rate,  when  we 
beard  it,  we  said,  and  wisely,  as  the  result  has 
shown,  "  Praise  the  Lord  for  this  !  Now  he  is 
beginning  to  do  a  good  work  in  Iloocli."  A 
work  had  already  been  begun  by  the  copies  of 
the  Scriptures  which  had  been  sold  tliere,  by 
scores,  by  the  Percliciij  missionary  society. 

10 


140  TEN    YEARS   ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

The  little  room  chosen  for  a  chapel  was  soon 
full  to  overflowing.  The  following  summer,  a 
few  earnest  men,  with  eighty-eight  dollars,  aid 
from  us,  erected  a  place  of  worship  to  seat 
three  hundred  persons ;  but  tliat  proved  too 
small,  and  during  the  past  summer,  having  re- 
modeled that  into  a  parsonage  and  a  school- 
room for  women,  they  have,  with  a  little  aid 
from  us,  erected  on  another  spot  a  two-story 
building,  the  lower  story  having  a  school-room 
for  boys  and  one  for  girls,  and  the  upper,  a 
chapel  to  seat  live  hundred  people.  During 
the  winter  of  1866-67,  seventy  boys,  forty-two 
girls,  and  two  hundred  adults  were  under  Prot- 
estant instruction  there,  and  ten  boys,  fifty 
girls,  and  one  hundred  and  sixty  adults  were 
taught  by  Armenian  teachers  ;  and  such  was  the 
popular  feeling  in  favor  of  education  and  read- 
ing the  Bible,  that  a  priest  among  them  declared 
in  public  in  their  church,  "  No  man  can  be  a 
Christian  who  does  not  read  tlie  Bible."  In 
this  opinion,  understood  literally,  he  is  in  ad- 
vance of  us,  for  there  are  many  blind  and  very 
aged  people  who  can  nut  Icaru  to  road,  except 


TUB    TRUTH  READ.  141 

with  tlieir  fingers,  Avhich  some  already  do,  with 
the  third  chapter  of  John  and  two  Psahns  put 
into  blhid  men's  Armenian  for  them. 

I  must  not  forget  to  mention  the  Bible 
Society  which,  in  imitation  of  Perchenj  and 
other  Protestant  communities,  these  people 
formed,  but  in  which  they  surpassed  all  their 
teacliers  in  zeal  and  efficiency.  Their  stout 
little  donkey,  Av^ith  two  large  coarse  bags  for 
hooks  suspended  across  his  saddle,  came  oftener 
to  the  city  Bible  Depository  than  the  "  agent"  of 
any  other  society  ;  and  many  hundreds  of  copies 
of  the  Scriptures  and  other  religious  books 
were  sold  there  and  in  the  neighboring  villages, 
for  they  too  formed  a  missionary  society,  and 
entered  into  a  contest  of  kindly  emulation  with 
Percbenj,  to  see  which  should  do  the  most 
good. 

So  much  for  the  external  work  in  Hooeli. 
The  more  recent  joyfnl  spiritual  results  will  be 
spoken  of  in  another  place. 

I  have  thus  tried  to  illustrate  more  vividly 
by  examples  than  I  could  by  mere  formal  state- 


112 


TEN    TEARS   ON   THE  EUPHRATES. 


merit,  what  Bible-selling,  the  first  instrumen- 
tality used  by  us  in  the  missionary  work,  is 
doing  in  turning  the  minds  and  hearts  of  men 
to  the  truth,  whose  reception  is  to  save  them. 


CHAPTER   YI. 

THE    TRUTH  PREACHED  AND   SUNG. 
They  .  .  .  went  everywhere  preaching  the  word.  —  Acts  viii.  4 

-J*  HEY  did  so  because  then,  as  now,  it  please  i 
J  God  by  the  foolishness  of  preaching  to  save 
men  ;  but  these  home  missionaries,  thus 
driven  out  by  Saul  to  do  among  the  Jews  of 
Palestine  and  Cyprus  that  work  of  preaching 
which  he  was  himself  to  do  among  the  Gentiles, 
took  with  them  no  well-worn  manuscripts,  nor 
did  they  "everywhere"  find  pulpits  waiting  for 
them.  Preaching  was  not  tlicn  the  formal  af- 
fair it  has  now  too  generally  come  to  be. 

And  when  Paul  began  to  preach  among  the 
Gentiles  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ,  he 
did  it  in  no  formal  way  of  time  or  place  or 
method.  Now  he  tries  to  win  to  the  faith  the 
Cyprian  deputy,  and  again  proclaims  the  word 

143 


144  TEN    YEARS   ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

in  some  synagogue  of  the  Jews.  Now  we  find 
him  clisputing  publicly  in  the  market-place  of 
Athens,  and  now  communicating  the  gospel  pri- 
vately to  those  of  reputation  in  Jerusalem. 
Now  he  is  pointing  the  Philippian  jailer  to  the 
Saviour,  now  sitting  with  the  crowd  of  women 
by  the  river-side  in  Philippi,  now  standing  in 
the  midst  of  Mars'  Hill  quoting  poetry  and  de- 
claring the  unknown  God  to  the  cultivated 
Grecian  philosophers,  and  yet  again  running 
in  among  the  rude  and  excited  crowd  at  tlie 
gate  of  Lystra  to  turn  them,  by  arguments  of 
another  sort,  from  their  heathen  vanities  to  the 
only  living  God ;  and  doing  it  all  without  a 
manuscript. 

The  missionary  of  the  present  time,  too, 
must  lay  aside  all  stereotyped  styles  of  preach- 
ing, and  adapt  himself  to  the  circumstances  in 
which  he  is  placed,  and  the  number  and  charac- 
ter of  those  to  whom  he  is  to  make  known  the 
truth.  He  will  often  find  no  room  for  a  formal 
text,  and  a  "  Firstly,  Secondly,  Thirdly,"  but, 
seizing  the  first  pretext  for  talking  which  comes 
to  hand,  must,  with  Him  who  so  often  spoke  to 


THE    TRUTH  PREACHED   AND   SUNG.  145 

the  people  by  parables,  meet  the  ignorant,  and 
perhaps  prejndiced  and  hostile,  crowd  upon  their 
own  ground  and  with  their  own  weapons.* 

We,  at  least,  decided  to  call  any  sort  of  talk- 
ing preaching,  in  the  scripture  sense,  which 
should,  in  any  way,  turn  the  attention  of  men 
to  gospel  truth,  or,  by  gaining  their  good-will  to 
ourselves,  prepare  them  to  receive  our  instruc- 
tions. 

With  this  latter  end  in  view,  we  aim  to  pre- 
sent a  constructive  rather  than  destructive  gos- 
Dcl,  making  no  direct  attacks  upon  the  fasts  and 
feasts  and  ceremonies  of  the  church.  Avoid- 
ing all   discussion  upon   non-essential  points,f 

*  As  when,  in  a  hostile  village,  the  missionary's  spyglass,  having 
drawn  the  curious  crowd  to  look  at  a  village  on  the  distant  moun- 
tains, made  them  willing  to  listen  to  a  sermon  on  faith  as  revealinff 
things  unseen. 

t  Those  not  conversant  with  oriental  modes  of  thought  can  not  re- 
alize the  need  of  Paul's  charge  to  Timothy,  "  Charging  them  before 
the  Lord  that  they  strive  not  about  words  to  no  profit ;"  "  But  shun 
profane  and  vain  babblings;"  "  But  foolish  and  unlearned  questions 
avoid,  knowing  that  they  do  gender  strife."  Usually  the  first  desire 
of  an  Oriental  is  to  discuss  the  fasts,  the  feasts,  feet-washing,  making 
the  sign  of  the  cross,  or  some  such  frivolous  thing;  and  it  requires  all 
our  strength  of  purpose  to  avoid  such  discussions  and  induce  ou,r 
helpers  to  avoid  them. 

Sometimes  we  are  obliged  to  dismiss  from  service  a  man  who  is  in- 


146  TEN    YEAns    ON   THE   EVPHUATES. 

"we  try  to  present  Christ  and  him  crucified, 
as  made  known  in  his  word.  Efforts  made  to 
induce  the  people  to  learn  to  read  the  Bible 
have  already  been  mentioned.  The  first  ser- 
mon to  every  man  and  community  usually  cen- 
ters here,  and  the  'practical  "  application  "  of 
the  sermon  is  usually,  at  the  close,  to  gather 
from  the  crowd  all  those  who  can  be  persuaded 
to  buy  a  primer  and  begin  to  put  in  practice  the 
truth  heard  by  learning  from  the  preacher  a 
few  letters  of  their  alpliabet. 

Never  sliall  I  forget  an  "  application  "  of  this 
sort  in  Perchenj,  the  village  spoken  of  in  chap- 
ter fifth.  At  the  close  of  a  service,  the  ques- 
tion, "  Gartal  Jcedes,  ycgpire  ?  "  "  Do  you  know 
how  to  read,  brother  ?  "  having  been  put  to 
each  one  present,  thirteen  men  —  no  women 
were  present  —  were  thus  seated  by  tliemselves 
to  test  the  question  whether  the  sermon  on 
"  Search  the  Scriptures  "  had  had  any  force. 
Among  them  were  two  aged  men,  who,  in  reply 

curaoly  addicted  to  this  habit,  for  now,  as  in  the  days  of  the  apostle, 
such  strifes  only  subvert  the  hearers  and  "increase  unto  more  UQ 
godliness." 


THE    TRUTH  PREACHED    AND   SUNG.  147 

to  the  request  that  thej  should  each  pay  tlirce 
piasters,  —  twelve  cents,  —  take  a  primer,  and 
begin  to  learn  to  read,  pointed  to  their  white 
hair  and  beard  with  as  much  incredulity  as  if 
they  had  been  called  upon  to  fly.  They  had 
Dut  themselves  amoncr  tliose  who  were  to 
"  search"  by  hearing  the  Scriptures;  but  when 
in  a  few  moments  they  had  actually  learned  to 
recognize  several  letters  and  call  tliera  by  name, 
and  were  assured,  that,  by  keeping  on,  they 
would  soon  ]jc  able  to  read,  their  incredulity 
vanished.  They,  with  the  rest,  bought  the 
book,  in  a  short  time  learned  to  read,  and  now 
are  pillars  in  the  churcli  in  that  village. 

This  is  a  specimen  of  one  style  of  preaching, 
in  wliich  perhaps  more  than  any  other,  or,  at 
any  rate,  as  a  preface  to  all  other,  we  employ 
ourselves.  Any  person,  who  is  not  one  of  the 
blind  crowd  who  so  abound  in  the  Orient,  or 
who  is  not  in  some  way  disabled  from-  learning 
to  read,  is  regarded  as  not  liaving  taken  the  first 
step  in  the  right  direction  before  beginning  to 
read  and  buying  a  copy  of  the  Scriptures. 

It  will  of  course  be  understood  that  much, 


148  TEN    YEAnS    ON   THE  EUPHRATES. 

indeed  most  of  the  missionaries'  preaching,  is 
not  done  to  the  churches,  nor,  indeed,  in 
churches,  nor  to  stable  congregations  in  any 
one  place.  Ours  is  pioneer,  or  rather  apostolic 
work,  —  that  of  leading  oif,  of  niai)ping  out  the 
country,  deciding  what  are  the  most  eligible 
locations  for  native  preachers,  and  stirring  up 
the  people  to  receive  them.  When  this  is  done, 
and,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  a  church  is  planted, 
our  loork  in  that  place  is  regarded  as  done*  ex- 
cept as  we  endeavor  to  guide  and  aid  that 
church  in  their  efforts  to  do  missionary  work. 

This  definiteness  of  aim  gives  great  definite- 
ness  to  the  preliminary  efforts.  While  endeav- 
oring to  do  good  to  all  men  as  we  liave  oppor- 
tunity, we  do  not  go  hither  and  thither,  preach- 
ing now  in  this  village  and  now  in  that,  scat- 
tering a  little  good  seed  here  and  a  little  there 
in  the  wild  wilderness  of  sin,  and  leaving  it  to 
be  trampled  under  foot,  or  choked  by  the  growth 
of  weeds  ;  but,  having  selected  certain  places  for 
tin  prospective  location  of  helpers,  we  devote 

*  The  work  has  thus  been  completed  iu  Harpoot  and  Arabldr  cities, 
and  several  villages. 


THE    TRUTH  PREACHED   AND   SUNO.  149 

our  ctforts  mainly  to  them.  Wherever  we  go, 
ail  audience,  larger  or  smaller,  is  always  at  hand. 
The  appearance  of  our  hats*  in  any  new  vil- 
lage is  sufficient  to  draw  a  crowd  at  first,  whom 
we  must  hold  and  profit,  if  at  all,  by  the  simple, 
forcible  presentation  of  truth  in  its  application 
to  themselves.  It  hardly  needs  to  be  said  that 
our  preaching,  and  largely  also  that  of  tlie  na- 
tive ministry,  as  we  hope,  is  of  the  plainest  and 
most  practical  kind.  We  preach  the  trutli  as 
we  think  the  hearers  need  it,  without  any  fear 
of  giving  offense.  The  broad  aisle  has  not  yet 
learned  to  dictate  to  the  pulpit  tlicro.  In  fact, 
it  does  not  exist,  all  the  people  sitting  promis- 
cuously upon  the  floor,  the  men  on  one  side,  and 
the  women  on  the  other.  The  time  will  doubt- 
less come  there,  as  it  already  has  come  in  Chris- 
tian lands,  when  tlie  preacher  will  be  regarded 
more  as  the  hired  servant  of  the  people,  who, 
with  itching  ears,  will  seek  teachers  after  their 
own  lusts,  and  refuse  to  endure  sound  doctrine  ; 

♦  The  people  all  wear  the  fez,  a  cap  fitting  closely  to  the  head. 
This,  with  a  eash  or  shawl  wound  about  it,  forms  tlic  oriental  tur- 
ban. 


150  TEN   TEARS   ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

but  at  present,  whatever  truth  can  be  established 
from  the  Bible  is  patiently  heard,  cut  where  it 
may.  The  mass  of  the  people  are  in  the  con- 
dition of  the  artless  man  who  confessed  himself 
a  "  miserable  sinner,  and  not  ashamed  to  own  it;^^ 
or,  rather,  I  may  compare  them  to  the  publicans 
and  sinners  in  the  days  of  Christ,  who  were  so 
well  convinced  of  their  guilty,  lost  condition  as 
to  bear  rebuke  better  than  the  proud  and  self- 
righteous  Pharisees.  Sin  there,  if  not  here  at 
home,  comes  out  with  too  bold  and  unblushing 
a  front  for  tlie  preacher  to  be  mealy-mouthed 
in  speaking  of  it.  Things  iiiust  be  called  by 
their  right  names.  No  gentle  insinuations 
against  sins  of  sinners  unhappily  absent,  or 
supposed  to  be  so,  will  serve  the  purpose  there, 
if  it  will  elsewhere.  "  Thou  art  the  man,"  "  I 
am  speaking  to  you,  wlio  are  here  present," 
must  be  plainly  inferred,  if  not  said.*  Accord- 
ingly, in  a  community  all  of  whose  members, 
with  one  exception,  were  given  to  lying,  a  ser- 

*  Were  we  to  talk  there  of  the  "great  enemy  of  souls,"  instead  of 
giving  his  name,  many  would  wonder  at  which  of  the  wicked  Turks 
around  them  we  were  casting  stones. 


THE    TRUTH  PREACHED   AND   SUNG.  151 

inon«oii  "  I  hate  and  abhor  lying"  was  safclj 
and  profitably  applied  by  "  Now  yon  know  that 
all  of  you,  except  brother  Sarkis,  who  sits  over 
there  with  his  feet  down  in  the  oven,*  ail^e  ad- 
dicted to  lying,  and  God  means  you,  when  he 
says,  '  All  liars  shall  have  their  part  in  tlie  lake 
which  burnetii  with  fire  and  brimstone.'  If, 
then,  you  hope  to  be  saved  from  'the  second 
death,'  cease  lying,  and  speak  the  truth  to  each 
other  and  to  all  about  you."  This  home  appli- 
cation had  the  effect  to  bring  many  to  the 
pulpit,  at  the  close  of  service,  with  confession 
of  wrong-doing  and  promise  of  amendment, 
whicli  was  apparently  kept,  by  efforts  on  the 
part  of  some  to  put  away  the  sin  which  had  been 
indulged  in  from  early  childhood.  In  another 
place,  a  plain  sermon  on  "  Everyman  tliat  hath 
this  hope  in  him  purificth  himself,  even  as  he 
is  purb,"  brought  two  hearers  to  the  preacher, 
with  a  confession  of  great  sins,  witli  the  ques- 
tion, "  What  shall  I  do  ?  "  and,  better  still,  led 

*  Their  ovens  are  deep  circular  holes  in  the  floor  of  earth,  lined 
Kith  pottery.  Now,  as  in  primitive  days,  to  save  fuel,  the  grass  which 
to-day  is,  to-morrow  is  cast  into  ovens,  to  heat  them.     This  grass  ia 

biniply  weeds  pulled  up  by  the  roots  and  dried. 


Id2  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

the  only  one  wlio  could  repair  the  wrong  done 
to  restore  the  four  hundred  and  forty  dollars 
wliicli  lie  had  stolen. 

Out  preaching,  besides  being  soundly  doc- 
trinal, presenting  clearly  and  frequently  the 
great  underlying  facts  and  truths  of  the  gospel, 
is  generally  concrete  rather  than  abstract,  pre- 
senting truth  and  duty  more  in  connection  with 
examples  and  positive  commands  and  prohilji- 
tions.  A  remark  of  Prof.  Shepard  of  Bangor, 
Me.,  needs  often  to  be  heeded  in  the  Orient. 
"  Young  men,"  said  lie,  "  preach  the  duties. 
Often  recur  to  the  tables  of  the  law,  and  dwell 
upon  '  Thou  slialt,  and  thou  shalt  not,'  lest  you 
fill  the  churches  with  converted  scoundrels." 
With  the  single  exception  of  "  This  do  in  re- 
membrance of  me,"  which  some  would  gladly 
put  first  on  the  list,  and  come  at  once  to  the 
sacramental  table,  all  duties  are  enjoined  alike 
upon  those  in  the  church  and  those  out  of  it ; 
and  a  result  is  that  some  who  are  not  yet  re- 
ceived to  the  church  are  as  consistent  in  main- 
taining family  and  secret  prayer,  and  making 


TUB    TRUTH  TRE ACHED   AND   SUNG.  153 

effoi  ts  and  sacrifices  to  extend  the  kingdom  of 
Christ,  as  are  church-members. 

Another  characteristic  of  the  preaching  of 
both  the  missionaries  and  the  native  ministry 
is,  tliat  it  is  very  largely  biblical.  Tlie  people 
would  hardly  endure  mere  motto-sermons, 
finely-written  essays,  taking  their  occasion  from 
a  text  which  disappears  with  the  reading. 
Many  of  them  go  to  the  sanctuary.  Scriptures 
in  hand,  and  demand  tliat  a  "  Thus  saith  the 
Lord"  support  what  is  said  from  the  pul])it. 
The  prevalent  order  of  Sabbath  service  in  Ilar- 
poot  is,  first,  a  prayer-meeting,  in  which  all  the 
people  meet  to  ask  God's  blessing  on  tlie  ser- 
vices of  the  day.  Second,  a  Bil)le-class,  in  which 
the  preacher  and  people, .Bilde  in  hand,  unite 
for  an  hour  in  full  and  free  conference  on  a 
previously-selected  passage.  In  these  exercises 
all  the  men  present  usually  take  part  by  asking 
or  answering  questions,  and  a  very  deep  in- 
terest is  often  excited.  The  preacher  takes  the 
leading  part,  and  in  this  way,  by  having  the  peo- 
ple share  with  him  the  work  of  investigation, 
and  following  up  the  exercise  with  specifying 


154  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

tliG  moral  lessons  wliicli  arc  to  be  learned  from 
the  passage  and  the  discussion  had  uj)on  it,  he' 
YQ^Wj preaches  more  effectually  than  he  could 
by  continuously  talking  to  mere  hearers.  The 
third  exercise  is  a  Sabbath  school,  in  which  all, 
young  and  old,  of  both  sexes,  unite,  and  in 
which  the  Bible  and  the  Assembly's  Shorter 
Catechism  have  been  the  text-books,  the  smaller 
children  also  repeating  hymns. 

The  fourth  service,  with  a  sermon,  immedi- 
ately follows  the  Sabbath  school. 

When  a  missionary  officiates,  the  exercises 
arc  sometimes  in  Turkish,  which  is  the  language 
used  l»y  Mr.  Barnum,  and  sometimes  in  Ar- 
menian, which  Mr.  Allen  and  myself  and  the 
native  preachers  in  Harpoot  generally  use ;  or 
they  are  in  Arabic  for  that  portion  of  the  stu- 
dents and  their  families  who  have  come  with 
Mr.  Williams  from  Mardin,  and  for  those  few 
people  in  Harpoot  who  use  that  language.*  To 
this  has  recently  been  added  another  tongue, 

*  Isot  infrequently,  in  the  same  service  different  persons  sing  in 
icveral  languages.  An  instance  is  given  at  the  close  of  chapter 
Hghth. 


THE    TRUTH  PREACHED   AND   SUNG.  155 

the  Koormangie  Koordish,  which  is  to  be  used 
by  the  churches  in  doing  their  foreign  mission- 
ary work  in  Koordistan. 

By  thus  infusing  the  Bible  element  so  largely 
into  the  exercises  of  the  sanctuary,  making  it 
so  prominent  and  influential,  the  people  be- 
come more  thoroughly  grounded  in  Christian 
truth  than  they  could  be  in  any  other  way,  and 
the  power  of  the  ministry  is  made  to  depend 
more  upon  their  soundness  and  their  ability  to 
present  Bible  truth  than  upon  their  power  to 
preach  finely-written  sermons. 

The  results  hereafter  to  be  spoken  of  will 
show  that  God's  word  thus  sent  forth  has  not 
returned  to  him  void,  but  has  been  to  many 
souls  a  savor  of  life  unto  life. 

I  must  not  fail  to  notice  a  third  instrumen- 
tality used  in  bringing  men  to  the  truth,  —  con- 
gregational singing.  Thanks  to  Dr.  Riggs  and 
some  others,  many  of  the  sweetest  and  most 
■precious  hymns  of  the  churches  at  home  are 
doing  their  blessed  work  of  teaching  and  sav- 
ing the  different  races  of  Turkey. 
11 


156  TEN   YEARS   ON   THE    EUPHIiATES. 

"  Rock  of  ages,  cleft  for  me; " 

"  Oh !  happy  day,  that  fixed  my  choice 

On  thee,  my  Saviour  and  my  God;" 
"  My  faith  loolis  up  to  thee ;" 
"  Just  as  I  am,  without  one  plea. 

But  that  thy  blood  was  shed  for  me," 

and  others,  lift  up  the  voices  and  the  hearts  of 
thousands,  in  expression  of  affectionate  and 
joyous  trust,  to  the  only  Saviour  of  men. 

Thousands,  young  and  old,  commit  these 
precious  hymns  to  memory,  and,  by  the  very 
exercise  of  singing  them,  bring  their  souls  into 
sympathy  witli  the  sentiments  of  penitence, 
faith,  and  tender  love,  whicli  they  express.  Wit- 
nessing, as  we  do,  the  influence  exerted  upon 
the  people  in  the  sanctuary  by  their  participa- 
ting so  largely  in  the  services,  and  specially  by 
their  uniform  and  hearty  participation  in  this 
service  of  sacred  song  as  a  religious  act,  and 
not  an  artistic  performance,  under  no  circum- 
stances would  we  allow  a  choir,  and  least  of  all 
a  quartette  of  mere  opera  performers,  to  de- 
prive them  of  this  precious  privilege.  And  if 
anything  were  needed  to  confirm  tins  opinion 
and   feeling,   it  would    suMce   to   observe  the 


THE    TRUTH  PREACHED   AND   SUNG.  ]57 

usual  effect  produced  upon  the  hearers  —  for 
such  merely  they  almost  always  appear  to  bo  — ■ 
of  those  musical  acliievements  which  uot  in- 
frequently form  one  of  the  chief,  as  well  as 
most  expensive,  attractions  of  a  fasliionable 
city  church  at  home. 

These  precious  hymns,  with  their  accompa- 
nying tunes,  usually  the  same  as  those  used 
in  their  English  dress,  are  rapidly  making  for 
themselves  a  place  in  the  homes  and  hearts,  as 
well  as  the  sanctuaries  of  the  people,  and  exert- 
ing a  power  as  a  means  of  grace,  of  which  we 
could  not  consent  to  be  deprived  in  our  efforts 
to  bring  the  perishing  to  a  saving  knowledge 
of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus. 

In  a  word,  reading,  preaching,  singing,  the 
Bible,  the  voice  of  the  living  preacher,  and 
the  hymn-book, —  or  rather  the. Bible  read  and 
studied,  the  Bible  talked  over  and  preached,  and 
the  Bible  sung, — these  are  the  instrumentalities 
used  for  bringing  men  to  Christ,  for  securing 
those  converts  who  arc  essential  to  doing  the 
missionary  work  of  })lanting  Christian  church- 
es.    These  gained,  it  only  remains  to  chooso 


158  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

from  among  them  tlio  persons  to  be  their  spir- 
itual guides,  and  train  them  for  their  office. 

A  word  in  regard  to  tlie  places  of  worship 
may  not  be  amiss.  They  are  erected  by  the 
people  themselves,  we  giving  such  "  grants  in 
aid  "  as  are  necessary.  They  are  of  the  plain- 
•est  and  cheapest  form,  erected  with  tliick  walls 
of  unhewn  stone  laid  in  mud  and  plastered 
with  the  same,  or  with  sun-dried  l)ricl<.,  sucli  as 
were  made  by  the  Israelites  in  Egypt.  Witli 
few  exceptions,  they  have  windows  covered  with 
oiled  paper  in  place  of  glass,  and  are  witliout 
even  the  luxury  of  a  board  floor.  The  roofs  are 
composed  of  earth  rolled  hard,  and  needing  re- 
rolling  after  each  rain-storm,  and  inclined  only 
enough  for  the  water  to  run  off  tlirough  a  Avooden 
spout  projecting  from  tlie  eaves.  The  expense 
of  the  common  village  chapels  varies  from  one 
hundred  to  four  hundred  dollars,  which  sum 
is,  of  course,  increased  when,  as  is  often  done, 
a  parsonage  is  united  with  the  chapel.  A 
drawing  of  one  of  these  rude  temples  may  not 
be  uninteresting.     (See  page  161.) 

The  people  sit,  in  primitive  style,  upon  tho 


THE    TRUTH  PREACHED   AND   SUNG.  159 

floor,  as  do  tlie  Armenians  in  tlieir  own 
churches,  and  the  Turks  in  their  mosques. 
The  idea  that  the  gospel  necessarily  takes  with 
it  chairs,  pews,  pantaloons,  and  dresses,  for 
those  who  hear  it,  is  a  mistaken  one.  Remov- 
ing the  end  wall  of  a  chapel  gives  the  reader  a 
view  of  an  audience  listening  to  a  sermon. 
The  women  are  seated  on  the  left,  and  the  men 
on  the  right.  (See  page  161.) 

All  will  take  it  for  granted  that  these  primi- 
tive temples,  with  no  divisions  except  tliat  of 
the  low  railing  which  separates  the  sexes,  are 
really  dedicated  to  God,  and  free  in  every  part 
to  all  comers,  and  not  portioned  off  for  sale  to 
human  owners.  To  ask  the  ignorant  and  per- 
ishing crowd  to  hire  a  seat,  or  accept  one  as  a 
favor  from  the  owner,  would  repel  rather  than 
win  the  in. 

No  one  would  justify  us  in  doing  this.  Bnt 
in  what  essential  particular  does  the  work  of 
evangelization  there  and  in  Christian  lands 
differ  ?  Is  not  the  prevailing  custom  of  pew- 
selling  hero  hindering  the  work  of  evangeliza- 
ti(jn  by  separating  the  masses  farther  and  far- 


160  TEN   YE  Alls  ON  THE  EUPHRATES. 

tlicr  in  feeling  and  sympathy  from  God's  honse 
and  people  ? 

I  do  not  plead  for  a  "free"  gospel,  wliicli,  as 
really  as  on  missionary  ground,  would  be  a  bane 
and  not  a  boon  to  the  people.  The  custom  of 
opening  free  churches  for  the  poor  appears  to 
be  even  more  objectionable,  since  it  separates 
society  into  classes  before  God,  seating  the  rich 
man  in  his  luxuriously-cushioned  pew  in  a 
splendid  church,  and  his  neighbor  in  the  poor 
man's  chapel. 

On  missionary  ground  we  feel  that  it  is  better 
to  open  God's  house  to  all,  and  then  to  press 
upon  all  the  duty  of  giving  money  to  support 
Christian  institutions  as  a  personal  one  to  God, 
and  not  as  a  mere  business  transaction  with 
men,  in  the  shape  of  a  pew-tax. 

In  this  way,  all  are  made  to  feel  at  home  in 
every  part  of  their  Father's  house  as  such,  and 
in  every  church  wherever  they  go,  and  not 
merely  in  some  cue  pew  of  a  single  church,  in 
which,  from  the  custom  of  occupying  it,  they 
have  learned  to  feel  at  home. 


ARMEXIAX   CHAPEL,    INTERIOR. 


ARMEXIA\   CHAPEL,   EXTERIOR. 


THE    TRUTH  PREACHED  AND  SUNG.  161 


HOUSES    OF   WORSHIP, 

The  manner  of  erecting  these  usually  very  humble  temples  ia 
given  on  page  66,  they  being  commonly  of  sundried  bricks,  with 
a  foundation  of  unhewn  stone  laid  in  mud.  They  accommodate 
between  two  and  three  times  as  many  people  as  do  churches  of 
the  same  size  in  this  country,  the  usual  estimate  being  one  com- 
fortakle  sitting  to  each  three  square  feet  in  the  area  of  the  floor, 
including  that  of  the  pulpit.  The  occasion  often  demands  much 
closer  packing. 

In  the  Armenian  churches,  the  women  usually  occupy  a  gal- 
lery, where  they  are  wholly  concealed  from  the  men,  but  in  the 
Protestant  places  of  worship  they  are  separated  from  the  other 
sex  by  a  low  railing.  On  entering,  all  leave  their  shoes  at  the 
door,  usually  upon  shelves  arranged  for  the  purpose,  that  the 
mats  upon  which  they  sit  may  be  kept  clean. 

In  their  care  to  keep  their  places  of  worship  free  from  dirt 
they  might  we.l  be  imitated  by  some  people  who  sit  m  costlier 
chiu'ches  on  tU's  side  the  water. 
11 


4» 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  NATIVE   MINISTRY. HARPOOT    THEOLOGICAL 

SEMINARY. 

How  shall  they  hear  without  a  preacher  ?    And  how  shall  they 
preach  except  they  be  sent?  —  Kom.  x.  14, 15. 

HE  question  of  providing  for  the  cliurclies 
a  suitable  ministry,  of  selecting  and  train- 
%M  ing  the  right  men  to  be  efficient  pastors, 
cost  us  more  anxious  thought  and  inquiry 
than  any,  indeed,  I  may  truly  say,  than  all 
others  connected  with  the  work.  For  reasons 
which  will  appear  as  we  go  on,  it  was  apparent 
from  the  first  that  we  could  not  rely  for  suit- 
able men  upon  the  missionary  seminary  in  Be- 
bek,  Constantinople.  We  took  it  for  granted 
that  the  churches  were  not  only  to  have  pas- 
tors, but  that,  as  a  body,  they  were  themselves 
to  furnish  them  from  their  own  ranks.  But  to 
separate  the  men  cliosen  for  this  ofBcc  frcnn  their 

102 


THE  NATIVE   MINISTRY.  163 

friends  and  the  simplicity  of  tlieir  rural  homes, 
—  even  the  cities  in  eastern  Turkey  being 
mostly  rural  cities,  —  and  send  them  a  month's 
journey  away  to  spend  the  period  of  their  edu- 
cation amidst  the  excitements  and  temptations 
of  the  capital,  were  to  lose  time,  and  spoil  the 
choice  convej-ts  by  tempting  them  above  what 
they  are  able  to  bear.  The  men  for  pastors 
must,  then,  be  trained  for  their  work  on  the 
ground. 

With  that  view,  Mr.  Dunmore,  wlio  remained 
in  Harpoot  a  year  after  our  arrival,  spent  six 
months  of  the  time  in  instructing  a  class  of 
the  most  promising  men.  In  1859,  the  pres- 
ent theological  seminary  Avas  establislied,  with 
Mr.  Allen  at  its  head,  assisted,  in  certain  de- 
partments, by  Mr.  Barnum  and  myself.  The 
course  of  study  continues  through  four  years, 
seven  and  a  half  months  of  each  year  being 
devoted  to  study,  and  the  rest  to  labor  for 
Christ  in  the  "out-stations"  of  Harpoot  and 
other  mission  stations  from  which  the  pupils 
come.     A  glance  at  the   course  pursued  with 


1G4  TEN    YEARS   ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

any  single  pupil  will  give  a  definite  idea  of  the 
plan  of  action  in  the  seminary. 

Any  man  not  under  eighteen  years  of  age, 
and  who  has  given  satisfactory  evidence  of 
Ciu'istian  character  and  earnestness  of  pur- 
pose, and  who  feels  a  strong  desire  to  prepare 
himself  to  preach,*  if  he  can  read  and  write 
and  cipher  a  little,  and  has  a  good  knowledge 
of  the  gospel  story,  is  admitted  for  the  first 
seven  and  a  half  months,  and,  at  the  close, 
sent,  as  are  all  the  pupils,  to  labor  in  some 
city  or  village,  doing  the  work  of  an  evangelist, 
teaching  people  to  read,  persuading  them  -to 
buy  and  study  the  Scriptures,  holding  meet- 
ings, &c.,  —  in  a  word,  doing  all  he  can  to  lead 
men  to  Christ. 

During  this  vacation,  which  is  in  the  winter, 
because  then,  more  than  in  summer,  the  peo- 
ple are  at  home,  we  missionaries  go  from  place 
to  place,  observing  the  pupils  and  the  charac- 
ter of  their  labors.     If  any  one  is  idle  or  inef- 

*  In  exceptional  cases,  persons  not  Christians,  who  wish  to  pre 
pare  themselves  for  teaching,  are  permitted  to  enjoy,  for  two  years, 
the  privileges  of  tlif  seminary  at  'heir  own  expense. 


EARPOOT   THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY.  165 

ficient,  if  he  seems  to  be  proud  and  lifted  up 
l)j  his  "  little  learning,"  if  he  is  more  given  to 
discussion  ahout  the  non-essential  matters,  on 
which  the  people  usually  love  best  to  talk,  than 
t )  efforts  to  teach  them  the  way  of  life,  if  he 
seems  to  be  unfitted  to  get  at  and  win  men,  if, 
in  a  word,  for  any  reason  he  seems  to  be  an 
unsuitable  man  to  make  a  minister  of,  we  send 
liim  back  to  his  farm  or  his  trade,  saying,  "  It 
were  a  pity  to  spoil  a  good  farmer  or  shoe- 
maker to  make  a  poor  preacher.  It  is  your 
duty  to  serve  Christ  in  some  other  way." 
Sometimes  this  prompt  dismissal,  which  has 
several  times  occurred,  is  sufficient  to  cure  the 
man  of  a  curable  fault,  and  to  secure  his  re-ad- 
mission at  a  later  day.  Those  who  promise  to 
make  useful  men  are,  after  this  winter's  labor,  re- 
called to  the  seminary,  and,  at  the  close  of  tbe 
next  period  of  study,  are  again  sent  forth  for 
another  winter's  labor.  If,  at  the  close  of  the 
second  year,  from  want  of  ability,  or  any  other 
tause,  it  appears  that  any  one  will  make  a  good 
teacher  or  common  lu;Ii)cr,  l)ut  not  a  good 
preacher  or  pastor,  be   is   frankly  informed  of 


IGG  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

tlu!  fact,  and  dismissed  with  a  diploma  as 
"  Teacher,"  which  gives  him  character  and  in- 
fluence as  such  among  tlie  people. 

Those  who  complete  the  prescribed  course  of 
four  years  with  honor,  tlien  graduate,  receiving 
a  diploma.  They  were  tlien  formerly  examined 
by  the  missionaries,  and,  if  deemed  suitable 
persons,  licensed  as  "  preacliers,"  and  called  as 
candidates  for  the  pastoral  office  by  any  com 
niunlty  desiring  their  services.  This  licensing 
is  now  done  by  the  native  body  of  pastors  and 
delegates  of  tlie  churches,  of  whose  "Union" 
some  account  will  be  given  in  a  future  chapter. 
When  the  licentiate  has  won  the  hearts  of  some 
community  where  there  are  converted  persons 
enough  to  form  a  church,  and  has  fixed  with 
them  the  terms  on  wliich  he  is  willing  to  be- 
come their  pastor,  they  unite  in  calling  the 
"  Union  of  Pastors  and  Delegates,"  who  assem- 
ble, and,  if  they  see  lit,  organize  a  church,  and 
ordain  him  as  their  pastor.  During  the  seven 
and  a  half  months  of  study  each  year,  the  stu- 
dents go,  usually  once  in  two  weeks  to  somcj 
ncigbboL-ing  village  for  Sabbath  work.     This  is 


EARPOOT   THEOLOGICAL   SEMmART.  1G7 

done  that  thoj  may  grow  by  teacliiiig  as  well 
as  by  being  taught,  but  especially  that  they 
may  keep  ever  in  mind  tlie  object  for  which 
they  have  come  to  the  seminary,  and  may  keep 
their  hearts  warm  and  their  spiritual  appetite 
and  digestion  good  by  Christian  labor.  In  the 
course  of  study  the  Bible  is  in  constant  use  as 
a  test-book,  from  the  first  day  to  the  last. 
They  must,  of  course,  study  the  grammar  of 
their  own  language,  and  go  through  a  brief 
course  of  matliematics,  must  study  geography 
enough,  at  least,  to  know  —  what  the  mass  of 
the  people  did  not  —  that  "  America  is  larger 
than  Constantinople,"  must  enlarge  and  elevate 
their  minds  by  some  acquaintance  with  astron- 
omy, and  gain  some  knowledge  of  cliomistry, 
natural,  mental,  and  moral  philosopliy,  and 
church  history.  The  third  year  is  devoted 
chiefly  to  the  study  of  systematic  theology,  and 
the  fourth  to  preparing  and  delivering  sermons, 
a  part  of  whicli  are  written,  that  tlie  authors 
may  le?rn  to  thhik  pen  in  hand,  and  not  to  be 
merely  fluent,  "tonguey"  men,  offering  the 
people,  as  we  say  in  oriental  phrase,  "  mere 


1G8  TEN    YEARS    ON   TUB   EUPHRATES. 

hot  water  in  place  of  soup  ;  "  and  a  part  urv' 
written^  that  they  may  not,  like  too  many 
learned,  "  deep  "  preachers  in  Christian  lands, 
ho  mere  pen-and-iulc  thinkers,  hetter  fitted  to 
sit  in  tlieir  closets  and  make  hoohs  to  he  read 
than  to  stand  in  the  pulpit  and  preach  sermons 
to  he  heard  and  felt. 

They  are  taught  that  a  really  "  good  ser- 
mon" is  one  which  proposes  and  attains  a  good 
ohject,  and  that  no  sermon,  however  full  of 
learning  and  eloquence  it  may  he,  is  worth  a 
farthing,  if  it  does  not  lodge  some  thought  and 
purpose  of  good  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the 
hearers.  To  preparation  for  tlie  delivery  of 
such  sermons,  and  the  faithful  performance 
of  their  pastoral  duties  and  missionary  lahor 
among  the  perishing  outside,  the  four  years  of 
seminary  training  are  given. 

With  a  view  to  success  in  this  ohject,  and 
to  "ivino;  to  the  churches  the  pastors  they  need, 
as  well  as  securing  efficient  helpers  in  the  an- 
tecedent missionary  work,  attention  has  been 
given  mainly  to  three  things  :   First,  —    . 


"? 


UARPOOT    THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY.  169 

CAEE   IN   SELECTING   MEN. 

The  seminary  is  not  regarded  as  an  agency 
for  converting  men,  nor  for  converting  igno- 
rant but  hireling  Christians  into  ministers,  but 
simply  as  a  helper  to  those  who  seem  to  feel, 
as  did  the  apostle,  that  necessity  is  laid  upon 
them  to  preach  the  gospel. 

Tlie  least  evidence  that  a  student  has  a  hire- 
ling spirit,  that  he  is  laboring  not  for  Christ, 
but  for  us  and  for  pay,  is  sufficient  to  secure 
his  instant  dismissal  ;  for  we  feel  —  as  do  also 
the  people  now  —  that  the  introduction  of  one 
merely  mercenary  man  into  the  sacred  office 
would  entail  untold  disaster  upon  the  churches. 
In  selecting  students,  no  display  of  zeal  in  any 
direction  is  allowed  to  atone  for  the  want  of 
spirituality,  tlie  apparent  possession  of  a  heart 
warm  with  love  to  Christ ;  but,  at  the  same 
time,  no  one  is  accepted  whose  ])rofessed  love 
has  not  been  manifested  by  some  effort  and 
sacrifice  made  for  the  good  of  others.  Mere 
words  of  piety'are  very,  very  cheap  in  the  Ori- 
ent, and  more  worthless  than  cheap. 

The  second  point  is  — 


170  TEN    YEARS    OiV   THE   EUPHRATES. 

CARE   IN   SUPPORTING   MEN. 

While  ill  the  seminary,  those  unmarried  men 
who  are  too  poor  to  support  themselves  receive 
a  sum  equal  to  sixty-four  cents  a  week  as  a 
gratuity,  increased  a  few  cents  in  a  way  to  be 
hereafter  mentioned,  and,  while  in  our  employ 
as  helpers,  they  generally  receive  less  than 
they  could  earn  in  other  pursuits.  The  mar- 
ried men  receive  a  dollar  and  twelve  cents  a 
week.  We  do  not  profess  poverty  and  inabil- 
ity to  give  them  more,  but  frankly  tell  them 
that  our  object  is  to  secure  men  who  are  wil- 
ling and  expect  to  make  sacrifice  for  Christ, 
and  have  faith  enough  in  him,  and  in  their 
personal  call  to  the  ministry,  to  trust  his  prom- 
ise to  care  for  those  who  serve  him  in  his  ap- 
pointed way.  "  If  he  really  has  called  you  to 
the  ministry,"  we  say  to  them,  "  ho  will  care 
for  you  in  it.  And  if  he  really  starves  you  out 
of  it,  that  is  his  voice,  saying,  '  You  have  run 
before  you  were  sent.'  We  are  not  his  ^only 
treasurers,  and,  if  we  don't  give  you  enough, 
he  can  send,  if  he  choose,  even  the  ravens  to 
feed  you."     When  the  preachers  become  pas- 


HAItPOOT    THEOLOGICAL    SEMINARY.  171 

tors,  the  people  support  them  better,  a  dollar 
or  more  per  month  being  added  to  their  sala- 
ries, which,  as  preachers,  vary  from  five  dollars 
to  eight  dollars  per  month. 

And  we  have  seen  the  good  efifect  of  inflexi- 
ble adherence  to  this  mode  of  exercising  care, 
not  only  in  turning  aside  some  unworthy    men 
who  succeeded  in  getting   through  our  outer 
gate,  but,  better  still,  in  cultivating  among  the 
really  worthy  men  a  spirit  of  self-denial  and 
affectionate  reliance  on  Christ.     Through  the 
influence  of  two  or  three  discontented  persons, 
a  very  general  dissatisfaction  with  the  support 
given  them  was  at  one  time  excited  among  the 
students,  and  we  were  told  that  "  all  had  com- 
bined to  strike  for  higher  wages,"  during  the 
then  coming  winter.     To  tliis  piece  of  news, 
given  to  the  missionaries  in  hope  of  clianging 
our  purpose,  and  opening  the  Board's  purse  a  lit- 
tle more,  the  reply  was,  "  We  know  of  at  least 
one    man    who   is    not    talking   about   wages. 
Krikore  never  talks  about  his  bread  and  butter. 
He  has  left  all  tbat  care  to  the  Master."     Goin<'' 
to  him  and  asking  him  whether  it  was  true  that 

12 


172  TEN    YEARS   ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

the  students  were  talking  about  their  support, 
we  received  the  reply,  "  Yes,  ive  are  "  This 
was  almost  too  much,  and  seeing  our  surprise 
and  pain,  he  continued,  "  Don't  say  anything 
to  me.  I'm  not  talking  about  the  amount  of 
my  salary.  My  only  fear  is  that  I  shall  not 
get  the  soven  hundred  and  fifty  piasters  which 
you  have  put  upon  the  people  this  year.  Do 
you  recollect  that  last  year  you  were  obliged 
to  take  me  away  from  the  people  to  compel 
them  to  pay  one- third  as  much  ?  "  Our  only  re- 
ply—  we  could  make  no  other  —  was,  "  Brother 
Krikore,  can't  you  cast  that  care,  too,  on 
Jesus  ?  " 

To  the  assembled  students,  who  rightfully 
pleaded  increased  prices  as  a  reason  for  their 
desire  for  more  pay,  we  said,  "  We  thank  God 
that  he  has  sent  high  prices  to  test  you.  Had 
we  a  box  full  of  gold  given  us  by  some  Turk, 
with  a  request  that  we  should  distribute  it,  wo 
would  not  add  a  piaster  to  the  support  of  one  of 
you,  for  now  it  will  be  apparent  who  has  placed 
his  hopes  of  support  on  our  money,  and  who  on 
the  Lord  Jesus."     Not  one  of  the  Harpoot  men 


inn r GOT  theological  seminary.        173 

left  the  service.  The  next  day  we  went  with 
Krikore  to  Ichmeh,  the  village  where  he  was 
to  labor.  The  people  assembled,  and  we  said 
to  them,  "  Last  year  you  paid  ten  dollars,  but 
this  year  your  share,  if  you  wish  K.,  will  be 
thirty  dollars."  To  this  they  replied,  "  Twenty- 
four  is  ready,  and  the  rest  will  be  easy  to  get." 
"  You  succeeded  in  casting  that  care  on  Jesus, 
it  appears,"  said  we  to  Krikore,  who  is  now 
the  beloved  and  well-supported  pastor  of  a 
church  formed  there,  the  women  of  the  congre- 
gation having  taken  off  their  gold  and  silver 
ornaments,  during  the  year  past,  and  sold  them 
for  upwards  of  one  hundred  dollars  towards 
paying  for  a  chapel  and  a  parsonage  for  him  to 
occupy.  And  when  that  really  lovely  young 
man,  in  whose  Christian  character  we  had,  for 
years,  had  implicit  confidence,  was  examiued 
for  ordination,  he  persisted  in  fixing  the  date  of 
liis  conversion  at  the  time  when  the  question, 
"  Can't  you  cast  that  care,  too,  on  Jesus  ?  " 
compelled  him  to  settle  the  question,  on  whom 
he  really  was  depending  to  care  for  him.  Three 
years  later,  as  I  was   about   to  return   home, 


174  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

Krikore  rose  in  a  largo  meeting,  in  which  were 
present  most  of  tliose  who,  with  him,  had 
been  troubled  about  support,  and  said,  "  I  can 
not  let  the  missionary  go  without  making  a 
confession."  Then,  after  repeating  the  story 
of  that  day  of  talking  about  salary,  he  added, 
"  Thus,  with  brazen  front,  I  stood  and  replied 

to  Mr.  W .     Oil,  I  wonder  the  earth  didn't 

open  her  mouth  and  swallow  me  up!"  Had 
ho  had  anything  to  hope  from  such  an  expres- 
sion, it  might  be  set  down  to  that ;  but  when, 
as  the  independent  pastor  of  an  independent 
church,  ho  thus  spoke,  he  furnished  proof  that 
he  —  as  have  also  many  others  —  had  re- 
ceived benefit  from  the  discipline  of  the  mis- 
sionaries' "  care  in  supporting  men." 

In  other  cases,  a  similar  advantage  has  been 
gained  among  the  people,  who,  seeing  the  pov- 
erty and  hardships  of  students  or  helpers,  have 
generously  aided  them  from  their  own  purses  or 
granaries.  It  is  a  great  advantage  gained,  —  this 
giving  to  the  churches,  and  to  those  who  labor 
as  helpers,  a  feeling  of  manly  Christian  inde- 
P'^ndence  of  the  missionaries,  and  of  mutual 


HARPOOT   THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY.  175 

dependence  on  Christ.  But  this  advantage  can 
not  ha  gained  unless  all  be  taught  to  look  to 
him  in  pecuniary  matters  as  well  as  others ;  the 
students  casting  upon  him,  rather  than  upon 
the  missionaries,  the  care  of  their  support,  and 
the  people  feeling  their  obligation,  as  stewards  of 
Christ,  to  care  as  they  are  able  for  those  of 
their  number  who  arc  laboring  for  him. 
The  third  point  is  — 

CARE   IN   EDUCATING   MEN. 

We  take  care,  of  course,  to  educate  them  in  a 
thoroughly  Christian  way.  As  before  said,  the 
Bible  is  a  daily  text-book,  constant  effort  being 
made  to  imbue  their  minds  with  the  spirit  of 
the  great  Teacher,  and  of  the  prophets  and  apos- 
tles. Map  in  hand,  they  travel  with  Jesus  over 
Judea,  Samaria,  and  Galilee,  and  listen  to  his 
teachings,  and  then  go  with  Paul  and  his  com- 
panions over  Asia  Minor,  Macedonia,  Greece, 
and  Italy,  and  with  him  do  the  work  of  preach- 
ing and  planting  churches,  and  try  to  enter  into 
the  meaning  and  spirit  of  his  epistles  to  them, 
till,  catching  his  spirit,  they  feci  that  they  too 


176  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

havG  a  missionary  work  to  do.  To  this  daily 
study  of  the  Bible,  and  effort  to  realize  its  scenes 
and  character,  is  due,  perhaps  more  than  to 
anything  else,  that  peculiarly  Christian  and  ear- 
nest spirit  which  we  are  privileged  to  see  most 
of  the  students  of  the  seminary  possess.  Next 
to  this,  our  greatest  care  has  been  not  to  edu- 
cate tliem  too  much.,  so  as  to  raise  them  too  far 
above  their  own  people,  and  destroy  their  sym- 
pathy witli  them. 

It  is  hard  for  one  accustomed  to  New-Eng- 
land institutions  to  rid  himself  of  tlie  idea  that- 
men  who  are  to  be  put  into  the  pastoral  office 
must  have  a  good  degree  of  education  and  cul- 
ture. It  was  difficult  for  us  to  feel  that  thirty 
months  of  literary  training  could  prepare  for 
the  gospel  ministry  a  man  knowing  little  more 
than  how  to  read  and  write  ;  but  the  experiment 
of  trying  to  give  thorouglily-cducated  pastors 
to  churches  in  the  condition  of  ignorance  in 
which  are  most  of  those  in  Turkey,  has  proved 
a  failure.*     To  say  nothing  cff  the  fact  that 

*  As  the  mass  of  the  people  become  better  educated,  those  who  are 
to  become  pastors  must,  of  course,  have  more  education ;  and  already 


HARPOOT    THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY.  177 

these  more  lilglilj  educated  men  become  too 
expensive  for  the  churches  to  support,  thoy  at 
the  same  time  too  often  lose  their  own  moral 
,  balance. 

Unlike  those  who  have  lived  from  childhood 
in  the  midst  of  an  intcllitiient,  educated  com- 
munity,  and  become  accustomed  to  regard 
knowledge  as  a  necessary  thing,  they  are,  by  its 
possession  in  a  community  such  as  are  most  of 
those  on  heathen  or  nominally  Christian  soil,  so 
singled  out  from  and  lifted  above  the  mass  into 
a  foreign  class,  that  tlie  ship  seldom  has  bal- 
last enough  for  carrying  so  much  deck-load  and 
sail. 

It  is  impossible  to  educate  them  into  the 
position  and  feeling  of  educated  men  in  en- 
lightened communities  ;  and  the  attempt  to  do 
so  only  fills  them  with  conceit,  which  is  all  the 
worse  because  acquired  at  foreign  expense. 
They  almost  uniformly  become  unfit  to  preach 
the  simple  gospel  needed  by  their  perishing  coun- 

Buch  is  the  progress  in  that  direction  that  an  additional  year  will  pro- 
bably soon  be  add(!d  to  the  course  of  study.  Those  who  have  become 
pastors  have  been  taught  the  necessity  of  increasing  in  kn  wledge, 
and  growing  with  their  people. 


178  TEN    TEAIiS   ON    THE  EUPHRATES. 

trymon.  We  believed,  too,  and  have  acted  upon 
the  belief,  that  the  necessary  training  should  be 
given  in  their  own  vernacular,  and  not  in  a  for- 
eign tongue.  Notwitlistanding  the  earnest  de- 
siro  of  the  students  to  acquire  the  English  lan- 
guage, no  instruction  in  it  has  been  given  in  the 
seminary,  and  we  have  felt  that  to  teach  it 
would  do  harm  rather  tlian  good.*  Besides 
consuming  time  whicli  can  be  more  usefully  de- 
voted to  other  things,  it  would  expose  them  to 
greater  temptations. 

When  an  ambitious  young  student  once  asked, 
"  Why  do  you  oppose  our  learning  English  ?  " 
I  replied,  "  Because  I  pray,  '  Lead  me  not  into 
temptation,'  and  believe  that  I  am  to  do  to  oth- 
ers as  T  would  have  tliera  do  to  me.  Do  you 
liot  know  that  the  English  consul  in  your  na- 
tive city  would  gladly  pay  you  twice  as  much 
for  serving  him  as  the  churches  can  in  the 
ministry  ?  "  "  Are  we  not  Christians  !  "  he  ex- 
claimed.    "  I  hope  you  are,  but  you  are  weak 

*  Now  that  a  number  are  settled  in  the  ministry,  we  propose  to  aid 
them  to  learn  to  read  —  not  speak  —  English  well  enoi  gh  to  use  sim- 
ply-written commentaries  in  that  language. 


HARPOOT   THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY.  179 

ones,  not  yet  able  to  bear  English,"  was  ray  re- 
ply. Yet  that  "  Christian,"  as  I  hope  he  really 
is,  managed  to  pick  up  English  enough  to  wan- 
der about  for  two  years  in  foreign  parts  before 
he  saw  his  folly  and  sin,  and  returned  to  work 
for  Christ.  The  Rev.  T.  Laurie,  in  giving  a 
sketch  of  the  Syria  Mission,  says,  "  In  183G,  a 
high -school  was  established  at  Beirut.  The 
number  of  pupils  rose  as  high  as  forty-four,  and 
its  prospects  were  flattering,  but  their  knowl- 
edge of  English  rendered  the  puj)ils  so  useful 
to  the  English  officers  in  Beirut,  in  1840,  that 
they  became  completely  demoralized,  and  the 
school  was  given  up ;  "  to  which  we  may  add, 
"  And  English  has,  as  a  rule,  borne  the  same 
fruit  in  other  missionary  seminaries."  I  have 
been  informed  that,  during  the  Crimean  war, 
but  one  student  remained  in  the  seminary  at 
Bebek,  and  he  was  the  man  who  is  now  pastor 
of  the  church  in  Harpoot  city. 

.But  not  all  the  training  in  the  Harpoot  Sem- 
inary has  been  merely  Uteranj.  Convinced  that 
the  inveterate  oriental  luiljit  ol'smoking*  should 

*  That  viler  habit  of  chewing  is  yet  unknown  there. 


180  TEN    TEARS   ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

not  be  supported  by  "  widows'  mites,"  and  be- 
ing also  annoyed  by  tbo  smoke  and  the  stencil 
of  the  rooms,  we  announced  to  the  students,  that, 
as  it  was  our  intention  to  furnish  only  money 
enough. for  food,  we  should  cut  off  a  piaster  a 
week  from  the  allowance  of  each  smoker.  Some 
laughed  at  this  small  reduction,  and  were  quite 
sure  they  could  stand  it,  till  they  discovered,  at 
the  close  of  the  second  week  of  smoking,  that 
one  piaster  a  week  reduction  meant  "  keep  on 
cutting  off  till  we  find  out  just  how  much  will 
suffice  for  food  witliout  tobacco."  One  man's 
*'  teeth  ached  when  he  didn't  smoke."  "  Pull 
them  out,"  we  replied ;  "  tbe  rule  can't  be 
modified  to  suit  special  cases."  The  result  at 
last  was  a  rule  forbidding  smoking  by  the  stu- 
dents while  in  the  seminary. 

A  missionary  was  one  day  engaged  in  a 
piece  of  work,  and  needed  aid,  for  which  he 
called  upon  the  students.  To  his  surprise,  but 
two  came,  of  whom  the  Krikore  before  men- 
tioned was  one.  The  result  was  the  discovery 
of  the  cause,  in  the  idea  that  manual  labor  was 
beneath  men  who  were  in  process  f  f  education 


HAUPOOT    THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY.  181 

for  the  high  office  of  the  ministry,  and  another 
result  a  cutting  down  of  their  eighty-four  cents 
per  week  allowance  to  sixty-four,  with  leave  to 
earn  three  cents  daily  by  working  an  hour 
with  a  missionary,  in  making  a  much-needed 
road  around  the  mountain-side.  At  first,  few 
came,  but  in  the  end  appetite  proved  stronger 
than  prejudice,  and  all  learned  that  men  of 
dignity  can  dignify  labor,  and  gained,  besides, 
a  keener  appetite  for  their  food,  and  more 
power  for  study.  Now  the  man  who  should 
hold  that  old  idea  would  be  looked  upon  as 
showing  a  lack  of  self-respect  by  such  over- 
anxiety  aboiit  his  dignity. 

The  total  number  of  pupils  —  not  including 
the  Koordish  department  of  six  Koordish-speak- 
ing  pupils  added  by  the  '•  Harpoot  Evangelical 
Union  "  the  past  year,  nor  the  Arabic-speaking 
nine  brouglit  by  Mr.  Williams  from  Mardin  — 
I  as  been  eighty-one,  who  spent,  previous  to 
18G7,  a  total  of  one  hundred  and  ninety-two 
years  in  study,  twenty-four  of  which,  or  one- 
eightli  of  the  whole,  were  at  their  own  expense. 
Of  these  eigl»ty-one  students,  Ibrty-sevcn  were 


182  TEN    YEARS   ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

married  men,  and  thirty-four  unmarried.  In- 
cluding incidental"  expenses,  the  support  of  a 
married  man  and  his  family,  each  seven  and  a 
half  niontlis,  has  cost  forty-two  dollars  and 
thirty-three  cents,  and  that  of  a  single  man 
twentj^-two  dollars  and  twelve  cents,  in  coin. 
The  total  expense  of  the  seminary  to  the  Board, 
previous  to  1807,  was  seven  thousand  four  hun- 
dred and  seventy  dollars. 

Eighteen  pupils  graduated  in  1863,  seven  in 
1865,  and  eleven  in  1867,  of  whom  thirty-two 
are  in  service  either  as  pastors,  preachers,  or 
helpers,  and  two  have  died.  Ten  students, 
who  spent  a  total  of  nineteen  years  in  study 
at  the  Board's  expense,  are  now,  for  different 
reasons,  not  engaged  in  "  Christian  work," 
while  eight,  who  supported  themselves,  and 
who  speiit  a  total  of  fourteen  years  in  study, 
have  proved  themselves  worthy,  and  are  thus 
engaged.  Striking  the  balance  between  these, 
we  have  a  loss  of  less  than  three  per  cent,  on 
the  money  invested  by  the  American  churches 
in  the  seminary. 

It  should   be  said,  however,  that  of  the  ten 


HARPOOT    THEOLOGICAL    SKMmART.  183 

reckoned  as  "  lost"  to  the  work,  because  not 
engaged  as  nominal  "  helpers,"  several  are 
among  the  best  members  of  the  churches  ;  one 
being  an  earnest,  efficient  deacon  in  the  Har- 
poot  city  church,  and  others  pillars  —  not  2:>il- 
lowB  —  in  village  churches.  But  three  or  four 
have  proved  themselves  unworthy. 

It  is  our  hope,  ere  many  years,  to  commit 
the  larger  part  of  this  seminary  work  to  the 
churches.  At  a  meeting  in  April,  1867,  the 
pastors  and  preachers  pledged  each  one-tenth 
of  his  salary  to  support  suitable  native  teachers 
to  take  charge  of  the  more  common  studies, 
and  an  excellent  young  man,  named  Garabed 
Pilibosian  (Garabed  tlic  son  of  Pilibos),  a 
graduate  of  the  class  of  1863,  —  one  who,  at  ten 
years  of  age,  wrote  and  signed  a  "  covenant  to 
be  the  Lord's,"  and  has  from  that  day  lived 
an  earnest,  consistent  Christian  life,  —  has  been 
chosen  "  Union  teacher."  Would  that  we 
could  rescue  him  from  that  early  death  by  con- 
sumption with  which  he  is  threatened  !  *     He 

*  A  translation  of  an  extract  from  a  letter  of  his  just  received  may 
not  be  uninteresting.  "My  health  is  as  wlion  you  last  saw  mo.  I 
never  forget  that  wqrd  of  my  loved  Saviour, '  As  many  as  I  love  1  ro 


184  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPIIliATEH. 

has  previously  been  in  our  employ  as  assistant 
teacher.  Thus  the  first  step  has  been  taken 
for  transferring  to  the  churches  the  work  of 
training  their  own  pastors  ;  a  work,  however,  in 
whose  higher  departments  they  will  for  some 
time  need  our  aid. 

buke  and  chasten,'  and  that '  He  scourgeth  every  son  whom  he  re- 
ceiveth.'  I  am  also  sure  that  all  things  work  together  for  good  to 
them  that  love  God.  Having,  then,  such  a  Lord  and  God,  I  have 
committed  myself  wholly  to  him.  No  leaf  of  a  tree  moves  without 
his  command.  All  things  which  happen  upon  the  earth  come  to 
pass  by  his  all-wise  and  good  providence,  and  especially  those  things 
which  happen  to  his  servants.  Therefore,  with  a  satisfied  and  thank- 
ful heart,  I  can  say,  '  Let  his  blessed  will  be  done ;  so  it  has  seemed 
good  in  his  sight.'"  For  more  in  regard  to  this  young  man,  see 
chapter  tenth. 


■!!ill!!l|!'SI|!!!'!!!||Mi;iffi|i^!y|l! 


Im4 


HAUPOOT   TIIEOLOaiCAL    SEMTNARY.  185 


THEOLOGICAL  SEmXARY  AND  CHAPEL. 

The  accompanying  sketch  gives  a  good  idea  of  the  western 
portion  of  the  mission  premises  in  Harjjoot  city,  as  seen  from 
the  south.  The  house  at  the  left  was  built  mostly  at  the  ex- 
pense of  liis  people  for  the  pastor  of  the  church.  Of  the  four 
hundred  and  forty-one  dollars  which  it  cost,  we  paid  one  hun- 
di'ed  and  thirty-eiglit  dollars.  It  was  in  regard  to  the  erection 
of  this  house  that  the  committee  called,  as  mentioned  on  page 
287.  In  the  lower  story  of  the  central  building  is  a  chapel,  and 
in  the  upper  story  the  rooms  of  the  theological  seminary, 
•which  are  eight  in  number,  four  being  used  for  school  and  re- 
citation-rooms, and  four  as  lodging-rooms  by  the  unmarried 
students,  who  cook  their  own  food  in  the  low  kitchen  seen  in  the 
rear  of  the  main  building.  The  married  pupils,  with  their 
wives,  occupy  rooms  in  the  city  rented  for  the  purpose.  At 
the  right  of  the  chapel  the  crowd  met  for  worshiiJ  in  April, 
1867,  as  mentioned  on  page  302.  Mr.  Williams,  who  was  a  practi- 
cal engineer  before  he  became  a  missionary,  by  the  aid  of  the 
students,  at  three  cents  an  hour  (see  page  181) ,  has  since  graded 
the  area  and  pre^oared  it  to  accommodate  —  with  scats  on  the 
ground,  of  course  —  some  twenty-five  hundred  persons. 

At  the  left  of  the  chapel,  and  in  its  rear,  is  the  Protestant 
graveyard.  The  single  gravestone  seen  is  that  of  "Pilgrim 
Hagop,"  a  sketch  of  whose  history  will  be  given  at  another 
time.  Upon  the  right  is  the  house  of  Rev.  II.  N.  Barnum,  and 
in  the  rear  of  it  is  seen  the  little  missionary  cemetery,  in  wliich 
lie  the  remains  of  Mrs.  Williams,  and  ten  of  our  "  little  ones," 
whom  Jesus  has  taken  to  himself.  The  continuation  of  the 
missionary  premises  towards  the  east  is  given  at  tlic  close  of 
chapter  eighth. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

HARPOOT  FEMALE   SEMINARY. 

A  bishop,  then,  must  be  blameless,  the  husband  of  one  wife.— 
ITiM.  iii.2. 

^^^^HE  native  ecclesiastical  body,  composed 
of  the  pastors  and  delegates  of  the  churcli- 
es,  interpret  this  rule  literally,  ordaining 
only  married  men.  They  say,  "  Old  bach- 
elors have  no  real  sympathy  with  women,  else 
they  would  marry ;  nor  with  cliildren,  for  they 
think  these  should  bo  whipped  into  silence. 
So,  to  these  two  classes,  who  constitute  three- 
fourths  of  the  community,  bachelors  can  not 
be  pastors  at  all.  And,  as  one-half  of  the  cares, 
joys,  and  sorrows  of  the  remaining  fourth,  the 
adult  males,  are  connected  with  their  family  re- 
lations, unmarried  men  can  only  have  half 
sympathy  with  them,  so  that  they  become  half 
pastors    to   one-fourth    of    their   people,   being 

18G 


ITAIiPOOT  FEMALE   SEMINARY.  187 

each  only  an  eighth  of  a  pastor."     No  one  is 
ordained  who  does  not  become  a  pastor. 

It  has  ah'cadj  been  seen  that  a  majority  of 
the  prospective  bishops  in  eastern  Turkey  have 
wives  before  entering  upon  their  course  of 
study.  In  a  country  where  the  divine  ordi- 
nance of  marriage  is  not  onlv  better  obeyed 
than  in  New  England,  but  where  it  is  re- 
garded as  a  parental  duty  to  provide  each  son 
with  a  wife,  few  reach  manhood  unmarried. 
If,  then,  we  would  not  practically  "  put  asunder 
what  God  hath  joined  together,"  by  educating 
one  party  and  leaving  the  other  in  ignorance, 
we  must  educate  the  wives  of  the  students. 
The  next  step,  therefore,  after  opening  the  the- 
ological seminary,  was  to  open  one  also  for  the 
students'  wives.  The  women  keep  house  for 
their  husbands  in  rooms  which  we  provide  for 
them  in  the  city,  and  attend  school  about  seven 
hours  a  day  on  five  days  of  the  week. 

Some  of  them  are  mothers  of  several  chil- 
dren, and  one,  at  forty  years  of  age,  is  a  grand- 
mother. So  the  united  seminaries  have  a  nur- 
sery, where  the  younger  children  are  committed 

13 


188  TEN    YE  Alts   ON   THE   EUI'IIiiATES. 

to  the  care  of  a  woman  employed  for  the  pur- 
pose, while  the  older  ones  go  to  one  of  the  city 
schools,  and  their  mothers  to  the  female  semi- 
nary. Here  every  effort  is  made  to  improve 
their  minds  and  hearts,  and,  indeed,  their  bodies 
too,  for  in  tliat  land  of  houses  witli  eartli  roofs 
continually  sifting  down  dust  upon  tlie  occu- 
pants, the  scriptural  injunction  to  "  cleanse 
ourselves  from  all  filthiness  of  tlio  flesh  "  has 
new  force. 

Some  of  the  women  are  at  first  exceedingly 
uninteresting  and  uninterested.  They  come, 
not  because  they  desire  knowledge,  but  in  obe- 
dience to  their  husbands  and  our  rule  requir- 
mg  each  student  to  bring  liis  wife. 

Many  of  them  are  not  Christians,  but  it  is  a 
pleasing  fact,  that,  of  the  ninety-four  pupils 
connected  with  the  seminary  previous  to  1867, 
forty-one  were  hopefully  converted  wliile  in  it, 
and  many  of  them  are  still  pupils.  As  in  the 
other  seminary,  here  also  the  chief  text-book 
is  the  Bible,  which  is  put,  on  the  first  day,  into 
the  hands  of  even  those  who  can  not  road ;  a 
primer  being  added,  with,  "  This  is  the  key  to 


HARPOOT  FEMALE   SEMINARY.  189 

God's  treasure-house  of  knowledge,  and  your 
first  duty  is  to  learn  to  use  it." 

The  one  point  constantly  aimed  at  is  to 
teach  them  to  read  this  book  intelligibly  to  the 
women  of  the  communities  in  which  they  spend 
the  winters  with  their  husbands.  Miss  West, 
the  teacher,  is  obliged,  at  times,  to  resort  to 
extra  forcible  appeals  to  wake  up  some  slug- 
gish mind  to  a  sense  of  the  importance  of  read- 
ing correctly ;  as  when,  at  one  time,  in  the 
usual  morning  devotions,  she  told  the  Lord  of 
her  fear  that  some  of  her  careless  pupils  would, 
by  their  blundering  reading  of  his  word,  be 
blind  leaders  of  the  blind,  and  destroy  instead 
of  saving  souls.  A  responsive  groan  from  the 
guilty  ones  told  that  they  began  to  feel.  Oth- 
ers, again,  make  very  gratifying  progress,  and 
are  not  only  able  to  read  intelligently,  and  to 
write  and  cipher  and  learn  lessons  in  geogra- 
phy and  astronomy,  but,  what  is  better  still, 
they  become  really  intelligent  students  and  ex- 
pounders of  the  Bible,  and,  with  hearts  warm 
with  love  to  Christ,  are  wise  and  efficient  iu 
winning  souls  to  him. 


19)  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

Formerly,  though  not  now,  a  few  day  pupils, 
girls  and  women,  were  received  from  Harpoot 
city,  upon  payment  of  tuition,  which  we  re- 
quired from  the  first,  and,  by  doing  so,  made 
the  people  feel,  not  that  they  were  doing  ws  a 
favor  in  sending  pupils,  but  we  one  to  them 
in  receiving  them.  When  the  seminary  was 
about  to  be  opened,  and  a  day  was  fixed  for 
examining  applicants  for  admission,  we  waited 
with  some  anxiety  to  see  what  would  be  tlie 
effect  of  our  rule  that  each  accepted  applicant 
should  at  once  buy  and  pay  for  all  the  books 
to  be  used  during  the  year,  adding  also  one 
dollar  and  sixty  cents  for  a  ticket  of  admission. 
The  result  justified  our  hopes ;  and  we  were 
obliged  to  send  some  girls  away  in  tears  who 
were  not  qualified  to  enter. 

Among  those  not  received  were  two  girls, 
whose  parents  a  short  time  before  had  declined 
to  buy  a  book  needed  for  preparatory  study. 
But  that  preparatory  school  was//-ee,  while  en- 
trance to  the  seminary  was  to  be  paid  for,  and 
that  fact  made  the  parents  willing  to  give  a 
much  larger  sura  for  the  books  to  be  used  in  it. 


HARPOOT  FEMALE    SEMINARY.  191 

The  influence  of  sending  away  those  girls  was 
greater  in  gaining  attention  to  the  seminary, 
and  arousing  popular  feeling  in  favor  of  educa- 
tion, than  that  of  ten  years  of  free  admission 
to  any  school  would  have  been. 

In  opening  the  seminary,  we  had  two  objects 
in  mind,  besides  educating  the  students'  wives. 
First,  to  excite  public  attention  to  the  sul)ject 
of  female  education.  With  this  view,  months 
beforehand,  we  gave  notice  of  our  intention  to 
open  the  sciiool,  and  of  our  purpose  to  admit 
only  those  girls  who  should  study  hard  to  pre- 
pare themselves,  and,  unless  too  poor,  have  the 
money  ready  to  pay  for  a  ticket  of  admission. 
The  other  object  was  to  prepare  educators  ;  per- 
sons who,  as  pastors'  and  preachers'  and  teach- 
ers'  wives,*  should  teach  schools  in  the  places 
where  they  should  be  located.  The  seminary 
was  thus  to  prepare  a  leaven  to  be  cast  into 
tlie  different  communities. 

But  the  unmarried  students  would  also  need 

•  J  say  "  as  wives,"  because,  such  are  the  customs  of  oriental  soci- 
ety, that  young  women  seldom  remain  unmairiod  long  to  teacli 
Bchool,  even  if  the  attempt  to  have  them  do  so  were  safe. 


192  TEN    YEARS   ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

educated  wives.  Indeed,  their  efforts  to  secure 
even  uneducated  companions  threatened,  at 
one  time,  to  be  in  vain.  The  almost  universal 
purpose  of  parents  to  give  their  daughters  in 
marriage  only  in  their  own  immediate  neigh- 
borhood forbade  giving  them  to  those  who,  like 
preachers,  were  liable  to  go  to  the  ends  of  the 
land, 

"We  had  seen  an  intelligent  graduate  of  an- 
other seminary  obliged  by  this  feeling  to  marry 
a  girl,  wlio,  besides  being  unable  to  read,  did 
not  eveji  know  her  husband's  native  tongue  ! 
If,  then,  we  would  not  sec  the  work  hindered 
by  this  popular  prejudice,  we  must  in  some 
way  remove  it. 

AVitli  this  view  we  received  fifteen  girls  from 
places  outside  of  Harpoot,  who  were  admitted 
upon  the  condition,  to  which  they  and  then' 
parents  assented,  that,  either  married  or  un- 
married, they  should  aid  in  the  missionary 
work.  Their  matrimonial  arrans-ements  re- 
mained  where  they  were  before,  in  their  hands 
and  those  of  their  parents ;  but,  without  our 
leave,   they    were  not  to  marry  one  not   em- 


HARPOOT  FEMALE   SEMINARY.  193 

ployed  111   "  Christian    work "    as    a    pastor, 
preacher,  or  teacher. 

If  any  one  should  ask,  "  Was  not  that  undue 
meddling?"  I  reply,  Not  at  all.  We  only 
made  a  condition,  to  which  all  concerned  freely 
assented,  that  those  educated  by  us  at  the  cost 
of  the  Lord's  treasury  should  marry,  if  at  all, 
"  only  in  the  Lord,"  and,  in  so  doing,  provided 
for  them  far  better  husbands  than  they  would 
otherwise  have  found. 

Now  not  only  Protestant  preachers,  but  even 
common  Protestants,  command  a  higli  premi- 
um ill  tlic  matrimonial  market  of  Harpoot,  so 
much  so  that  one  of  the  bitterest  enemies  of 
the  truth  in  the  city  recently  had  her  daughter 
taught  to  read,  and  gave  notice  that  she  would 
give  her  in  marriage  to  a  Protestant ;  "  for," 
said  she,  "  they  treat  tlieir  wives  well." 

Then,  too,  it  was  our  right  and  duty  to  take 
good  care,  that,  by  the  marriage  of  the  pupils 
of  the  seminary  to  common  persons,  instead  of 
tlicir  assuming  positions  of  influence  in  carry- 
ing on  the  missionary  work,  tlie  missionary 
teachers  sccjLirod  from  America,  at  so  great  sac- 


194  TEN    TEARS   ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

rifice  and  expense  on  their  part  and  that  of 
their  friends  and  the  churches  at  home,  should 
not  become  mere  teachers  of  common  schools,  in- 
stead of  being  teachers  of  effective  laborers  for 
Christ.  The  traveling  expenses  of  these  fifteen 
boarding  pupils,  as  well  as  that  for  clothes  and 
books,  —  sold  by  us  to  them  at  half  the  usual 
price,  —  and  most  other  incidental  expenses, 
are  paid  by  their  friends,  some  of  whom  also 
bear  a  part  of  the  expense  of  board,  which  for 
seven  and  a  lialf  months  is  about  twenty  dol- 
lars, in  coin. 

There  have  been  in  all  ninety-four  pupils, 
thirty-four  of  whom  have  been  boarders,  ten  of 
these  last  having  paid  their  own  board  in  part. 
Twenty-nine  women  and  girls  have  graduated, 
having  completed  the  course  of  study,  which  is 
three  years  for  girls,  —  who  are  better  fitted  at 
entering,  —  and  four  for  the  married  women, 
their  first  year  being  regarded  as  preparatory. 
A  number  of  others,  having  spent  one  or  two 
years  in  the  seminary,  have  been  married  to 
pastors,  preacher's,  or  other  helpers.  At  grad- 
uation each  one  receives  fV  diploma,  of  vyliich 


HARPOOT  FEMALE   SEMINARY.  195 

there  are  two  kinds.  For  those  who  complete 
all  the  studies,  the  form  is,  — 

"This  certifies  that  tlio  bearer" — giving 
licr  name  —  "  has  for  three  years  been  a  mem- 
ber  of  the  Harpoot  Seminary,  and  that,  by  her 
progress  in  study,  and  by  her  good  behavior, 
she  has  given  pleasure  to  licr  tcacliers,  and 
they  hope  that  she  will  be  useful  in  the  work 
of  the  Lord."  Tlie  diploma  for  those  who  are 
unable  to  complete  all  the  studies  has  a  some- 
what different  prefiice,  but  tlie  same  close. 

The  one  great  object  of  the  school  is  not  to 
educate  so  many  persons,  but,  by  a  tliree  years' 
course  of  Christian  training,  to  prepare  tliem 
to  be  laborers  for  Ciirist.  And  it  is  pleasing  to 
see  how  the  efforts  thus  made  have  beeii  blessed, 
and  how  much  of  the  spirit  of  Christ  some  of 
the  pupils  have. 

Prominent  among  them  is  one  who  is  now  as- 
sistant teacher,  Kohar  by  name,  which  moans 
"Jewel,"  and  such  she  is,  though  deformed  in 
body.  Years  ago,  the  first  of  her  father's  family, 
of  a  so:)re  or  more  of  persons,  slie  lioard  and 
learned  to  love  the  truth,  and,  being  sorely  por- 


196  TEN    YEARS   ON    THE   EUPHRATES. 

scented  ill  her  native  village,  Shepik,  fled  for 
))i'o( action  to  the  missionary's  house  in  Arabkir. 
Her  friends  pursued,  and  led  her  back  by  her 
hair,  and  she  followed  the  missionary's  advice, 
to  endeavor  by  Christian  patience  to  win  them 
to  Clirist,  till  they  all  became  friends  of  the 
truth.  When  the  Harpoot  seminary  was  opened, 
they  consented  to  her  coming,  and,  as  pupil  and 
assistant  teacher,  she  has  remained  there  till 
now.  The  four  and  a  half  months  of  vacation  in 
winter  she  spends  in  evangelistic  labors  among 
the  women  of  the  villages  about  the  city,  often 
having  from  one  hundred  to  two  hundred  pre- 
sent at  her  daily  meeting.  When  she  has 
spent  a  week  or  more  in  one  village,  those  of 
the  next  come  for  her,  and,  mounting  her  on  a 
donkey,  take  her  to  their  village  for  a  similar 
series  of  meetings.  Her  sincere  and  earnest 
j)iety  exerts  a  powerful  influence  upon  the  mem- 
bers of  the  school.  In  a  letter  just  received 
fi'om  her,  giving  some  account  of  the  closing' ex- 
ercises of  the  last  school  year,  she  speaks  of  her 
joy  in  seeing  the  improvement  whicli  the  pu- 
pils have   made   during  the  year,  especially  iu 


HARPOOT  FEMALE   SEMINARY.  197 

cai-efuUy  obeying  all  the  rules  of  the  school. 
"  I  am  sure,"  says  she,  "  that  the  Lord  has  been 
with  us  all  the  time,  the  pupils  have  so  con- 
scientiously kept  the  rules  as  they  learned  them 
last  year,  not  waiting  for  Miss  West  to  repeat 
them."  But  what  gives  her  special  joy  is  that 
five  of  tlieir  nunil)er  have  hopefully  found  tlie 
Saviour.  She  then  mentions  the  different  places 
to  which  tlie  girls  have  gone  to  spend  the  win- 
ter in  teaching ;  for  they  too,  like  the  pupils  of 
the  other  seminary,  pass  their  vacation  in  Chris- 
tian labor,  receiving  salaries  of  about  tlireo 
dollars  per  month,  out  of  which  tlicy  pay  their 
board. 

During  the  year  past,  Koliar  and  some  of  the 
pupils  were  accustomed  to  go,  two  and  two,  ac- 
companied by  some  trusty  man,  to  spend  the 
Sabbath  in  Christian  labor  in  villages  near  the 
city,  and  great  was  their  joy  in  the  employment. 

Says  Miss  West,  in  a  letter  just  received  from 
her,^  "  I  mentioned  in  my  last  the  new,  or 
ratlier  increased  mhsionanj  spirit  in  the  school, 

*  It  is  due  to  Miss  West  to  say  that  none  of  her  letters  which  are 
quoted  were  written  for  tlie  public  eye. 


198  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

« 

in  connection  with  labor  at  the  villages  on  the 
Sabbath.  Kohar  and  Marine  *  spent  the  next 
Sabbath  at  Hulakegh  and  Bizmishen.  The  next 
afternoon  we  took  half  an  lionr  to  hear  their 
story,  and  that  of  others  who  had  also  gone  ont. 
At  Hulakegh,  one  hundred  women  came  to  Ko- 
liar's  meeting,  and  ten  or  twelve  to  that  of  Mar- 
ine for  clnirch-members,  at  tlie  same  time. 
They  had  a  most  interesting  story  to  tell.  At 
Bizmislien  they  met  thirty-five  women,  besides 
some  isolated  cases  by  the  wayside.  Sooltan  told 
of  her  visit  to  Yeghcki,  and  Tonia  Iludhcrsha 
of  lier  Sabbath  in  Ichme.  I  can  not  describe 
to  you  the  glow  of  soul  with  which  this  good 
woman  told  lier  story  in  broken  Armenian."}" 
She  had  labored  with  thirty-five  women  in  a 
tongue  not  her  own,  and  really  seemed  to  have 
come  back  renewed  in  soul  and  body  too.  Our 
half  hour's  talk  turned  into  a  prayer-meeting, 

*  A  young  widow  from  Malatia,  who  sold  all  the  jewels  given  her 
by  her  husband  and  friends,  to  get  the  means  of  coming  to  the  semi- 
nary in  spite  of  those  friends.  There  are  also  two  other  young  wid- 
ows among  tlie  lifteen  boarding  pupils. 

t  Shi^  came,  with  her  husband,  from  Mardin,  and  her  native  tongus 
is  Arabic. 


HARPOOT  FEMALE   SEMINARY.  199 

and  used  up  part  of  the  afternoon,  but  the 
effoot  upon  us  all  was  most  blessed. 

"  Soon  after,  Loosintak,  of  Bitlis,  Marta,  of 
Arabkir,  and  Manoosh,  of  Diarbekir,  came  beg- 
guig  most  earnestly  that  I  would  let  them  go 
with  the  older  sisters  and  teach  the  children. 
I  shall  never  forget  their  touching  earnestness. 
A  new  baptism  seemed  to  descend  upon  the 
whole  school,  and  the  voice  of  prayer  ascended 
morning,  noon,  and  night." 

In  another  part  of  her  letter.  Miss  West 
says  :  "  I  proposed  a  '  Mothers'  Association  '  t'j 
the  women  of  tlie  school.  '  Thirty-nine  at- 
tended the  meeting,  who  have  fifty  children 
now  living;'  so  the  secretary's  record  says. 
We  organized,  and  chose  a  committee  of  four, 
to  plan  and  conduct  meetings  in  turn,  semi- 
monthly. We  have  had  two  meetings.  The 
children  who  are  old  enough  come  with  their 
mothers  to  every  other  meeting.  On  Wednes- 
day last,  twenty-four  children  came,  briglit  and 
clean.     Toma  *  Sarkisian  conducted  the   first 

*  Toma  is  also  Uie  naino  of  one  of  tlie  young  preach(!rs  wanted  la 
Terchenj  (chapter  fourth),  but  'jis  name  is  in  another  language. 


200  TEN    YEARS   ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

part  admirably  ;  read  tlie  first  verses  of  llio 
sixth  chapter  of  Ephesiaus,  and  talked  to  the 
mothers  most  earnestly  and  appropriately, 
illustrating  her  remarks.  Then  she  turned  to 
the  children,  and  oh,  my  heart  was  cheered ! 
Then  two  earnest  prayers,  after  which  I  cate- 
chised the  little  ones,  and  heard  them  recite 
their  hymns  and  Scripture  passages.  Every 
child,  however  small,  had  something  ready;  the 
Arabic  children  in  Arabic.  'Twas  a  sight  to 
make  one  glad.  And  how  those  mothers'  faces 
shone  !  I  had  Mr.  Allen's  melodeon  down,  and 
we  sang  many  pieces.  One  boy  repeated  the 
13th  of  1  Corinthians.  When  he  said,  so  man- 
like,—  'When  I  was  a  child  I  spake  as  a 
child,'  &c.,  '  but  when  I  became  a  man  I  put 
away  childish  things,'  it  made  us  all  laugh,  and 
him  too.  Our  girls  were  greatly  interested,  and 
stood  up  most  of  the  time,  as  they  were  behind 
the  rest.  When  we  closed,  all  seemed  very 
happy ;  and  as  they  passed  out  they  dropped 
their  free-will  offerings  into  the  box.  Many  a 
mother  hold  up  her  child  with  the  ( opper  in 
its  little  hand.     Let  no  one  believe  that  this 


IIAIiPOOr  FEMALE   SEMINARY.  201 

people  can  not  be  taught  to  give.     It  is  latent 
in  their  hearts." 

The  more  advanced  pupils  in  the  school  man- 
ifested the  deepest  interest  in  the  books  of  John 
and  Hebrews,  and  in  theological  topics  upon 
which  stated  lessons  were  given.  Says  Miss 
West,  "  Most  blessed  have  been  the  Bible  and 
theology  lessons  to  pupils  and  teacher.  The 
savor  of  those  last  chapters  of  John  remains 
with  us  still.  It  seems  to  hallow  tlie  rela- 
tion of  teacher  and  pupil  ;  we  sit  together  in 
'  heavenly  places,'  and  feel  that  we  are  one  in 
Him . 

"  We  one  day  spent  nearly  two  hours  on  the 
close  of  the  eleventh  and  the  first  verses  of 
the  twelfth  chapter  of  Hebrews ;  not  so  much 
in  exegesis  as  in  earnest  talk  about  Grod's  plan 
of  employing  man  in  labor  for  the  salvation  of 
man,  —  how  he  shrinks  not  from  suffering  his 
most  faithful  and  beloved  servants  to  be  '  af- 
flicted and  tormented,'  in  want,  '  destitute,' 
to  wander  about  the  earth  homeless,  to  endure 
tribulation  even  to  tiie  end.  And  then  we  re- 
called how  he  '  spared  not  his  own  Son,'  and 


202  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES!. 

how  Jesus  said  to  liis  disciples,  when  about  to 
leave  them,  '  Remembor  the  word  that  I  said 
unto  you.  The  servant  is  not  greater  than  his 
Lord.'  I  entered  into  the  subject  more  fully, 
because  the  husbands  of  two  of  the  women  in 
the  class  had  said  to  Mr.  Barnum  that  they 
could  not  live  on  their  monthly  stipend,  and  he 
had  said  to  them,  '  Go  back,  tlien,  to  your 
trade.'  When  we  touched  the  tender  spot,  — 
without  personal  allusion,  of  course,  —  these 
and  one  or  two  other  women  winced  and  began 
to  excuse  such  complaints.  This  gave  more 
force  and  point  to  the  su1)ject,  and  we  had  a 
solemn  time  when  we  came  up  at  last  to  the 
great  day  of  accounts,  and  the  reward  the  Mas- 
ter will  give  his  own  faithful,  self-denying  co- 
workers. One  of  the  good  women  summed  it 
all  up  when  she  said,  '  If  the  heart  is  full  of 
love  to  Christ,  everything  which  we  do  and 
suffer  for  him  will  come  easy.'  " 

I  have  made  this  quotation  because  it  both 
shows  the  kind  of  instruction  given,  and  that 
the  influence*  of  the  seminary  is  fully  in  har- 
mor  y  with  the  efforts  in  other  departments  to 


HARPOOT  FEMALE   SEMINARY.  203 

make  all  the  helpers  and  the  churches  feel  that 
their  relations  are  with  Christ,  and  their  de- 
pendence must  be  on  him,  and  not  on  us. 

If  any  human  instrumentality,  more  than 
others,  has  given  success  to  missionary  efforts 
in  Harpoot,  it  has  been  this  entire  agreement  of 
all  the  missionaries,  male  and  female,  in  carry- 
ing out  this,  which  we  I'egard  as  an  essential 
idea  of  missionary  policy  ;  dne  which  relieves 
missionaries  from  all  undue  anxiety,  from  all 
temptation  to  make  use  of  compromises  and 
expedients,  and  enables  them  to  go  fearlessly 
forward  upon  a  uniform  line  of  action.  We 
have  all  felt  that  the  foundation  of  God  stand- 
etli  sure,  having  this  seal,  "  The  Lord  knoweth 
them  that  are  his,"  and  that  those  who  are  his 
will  be  most  benefited  by  faithfully  and  kindly 
pointing  out  to  them  their  duties  to  him,  and 
leaving  them  to  do  those  duties,  or  bear  the 
penalty  of  not  doing  them. 

It  is  one  of  the  most  encouraging  facts  in  re- 
gard to  this  seminary,  that  so  many  of  its  pu- 
pils have  so  much  practical  faith  iu  Ciirist,  and 
tliat,  by   daily  contact  with   liiljlo  truth,  their 

14 


204  TEN    YE  Alts   ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

minds  are  becoming  constantly  more  and  more 
elevated  and  eimobled. 

Twenty-three  of  tlieir  number  were,  during 
the  year  past,  instructed  by  Miss  West  in  theo- 
logical topics,  and,  on  examination-day,  bore  a 
creditable  examination  upon  such  points  as  the 
assembled  pastors  and  preachers  chose  to  bring 
up,  among  which  were  the  trinity  and  the 
atonement.  Among  them  were  some  from  the 
Arabic  part  of  the  field,  wlio  have,  within  a 
short  time,  acquired  not  only  new  ideas  of 
truth,  but  a  new  language,  the  Armenian,  in 
which  to  teach  thera  to  others ;  and  one  of  the 
most  touching  incidents  of  the  school-year  was 
the  effort  of  these  women  to  do  missionary 
work  in  their  newly-acquired  tongue. 

The  effort  has  been  made  to  unite  the  differ- 
ent races,  with  their  different  languages,  in  this 
one  seminary ;  but  the  trial  shows  more  and 
more  the  need  of  a  similar  school  in  the  Arabic- 
speaking  portion  of  the  field,  to  share  with  the 
Arabic  theological  seminary,  under  the  care  of 
Mr.  Williams,  in  Mardin,  the  labor  of  training 
in  their  native  tongue,  and  giving  to  the  rising 


HARPOOT  FEMALE   SEMINARY.  20/) 

clnirclies  of  tliat  region  also,  the  laborers 
needed.  The  Board  has  accordingly  decided 
to  send  out  two  ladies  to  take  charge  of  such  «\ 
seminary. 

It  has  been  the  misfortune  of  the  Harpoot 
seminary  to  have  frequent  changes  of  teachers, 
the  first  teacher  having  remained  but  a  year, 
Misses  Fritcher  and  Pond  (now  Mrs.  Williams) 
a  year  each,  —  the  former  having  left  her  own 
seminary  in  Marsovan  during  that  time,  —  and 
Miss  "West  still  remaining.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  Misses  Seymour  and  Warfield,  who  have 
now  gone  to  take  charge  of  the  school,  will  be 
enabled  to  complete  its  work  and  establish  an- 
other of  a  similar  character  elsewhere.  In 
what  has  been  said  it  is  implied  that  we  pro- 
pose to  open  such  schools  only  in  connection 
with  theological  seminaries,  and  for  raising  up 
Christian  educators.  The  care  of  establishing 
and  sustaining  schools,  to  do  directly  the  work 
of  educating  the  masses,  we  leave  to  the 
churches,  who  have  already  taken  some  steps 
towards  opening  a  boarding-school  in  Tlarpoot ; 
Kohar,  the  assistant  teaoher  in  the  missionary 


206  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE  EUPHRATES. 

seminary,  having  made  the  first  contribution 
towards  it  by  giving  four  dollars  and  forty 
cents  from  lier  annual  salary  of  twenty-four 
dollars.  This  school  will  need  from  America 
only  contributions  of  prayers,  unless  some  kind 
friend  give  a  little  aid  toward  erecting  the 
needed  buildings. 

I  add  as  a  postscript  portions  of  a  private  let- 
ter received  from  Miss  AYest  since  the  preceding 
was  written.     The  notes  are  mine. 

"After  the  lapse  of  several  weeks,  I  take  up  the 
thi'ead  of  my  long  narrative  where  I  dropped  it,  at 
the  closing  exercises  of  our  school-examination. 

"Pastor  Mardiros,  of  Ilarpoot,  presented  the 
diplomas  to  our  graduating  class,  of  fifteen  women 
and  gh'ls.  His  remarks  were  very  impressive, 
j^mong  other  things,  he  said  he  well  knew  that  each 
one  would  take  with  her  one  or  more  evil  spirits. 
One  would  say,  'Now  you  are  somebody;  you  have 
been  educated,  and  are  able  to  do  what  others  can 
not  do,'  etc.,  thus  puffing  her  up  with  pride  and 
Belf-couceit ;  another  would  whisper,  'After  all, 
what  has  your  time  spent  in  school  amounted  to? 
You  have  only  made  ^beginning ;  you  know  but  very 


HAllPOOT  FEMALE   SEMINAJiY.  207 

little,  and  are  not  fit  to  set  yourself  up  as  a  leader 
to  others!'  Hp  warned  them  of  the  danjrers  that 
lay  in  these  two  extremes,  and  exhorted  them  to 
keep  close  to  the  great  Teacher  in  the  simplicity  of 
faith,  saying  to  the  first  suggestion,  'By  the 
grace  of  God  I  am  what  I  am,  and  only  througli 
Christ  can  I  do  any  good ; '  to  the  second,  '  Sa- 
tan, get  thee  behind  me !  I  am  in  the  place  God 
designed  fpr  me  ;  that  is  the  best  place  for  me,  and 
what  he  has  taught  me  I  will,  with  his  help,  teach 
to  others.' 

"  I  wish  you  could  have  seen  that  class,  as  each 
one  stepped  forward  and  received  her  diploma  from 
the  hand  of  the  good  pastor ;  some  of  them  so 
gracefully.  Pastors  Ilagop,  of  Ilulakegh,  Mardiros, 
of  Malatia,  and  Simon,  of  Bitlis,  followed  in  excel- 
lent addresses  to  the  class.  Their  hearts  seemed 
to  ovci-flow  with  joy  over  what  they  had  seen  and 
heard ;  and  yet  they  felt  that  much  danger  lay  in 
the  future.  Said  Pastor  Simon,  '  Our  joy  is  not 
yet  fulL  We  shall  Avait  to  see  your  future  course, 
—  what  you  will  actually  do  when  you  go  out  into 
the  world  again.  It  may  be  some  of  you  will  cause 
us  to  hang  our  heads  for  shamC ;  you  may  so  con- 


208  TEN    TEARS    ON    THE   EUrilRATES. 

duct  US  to  make  your  teachers  say,  '  Would  they 
had  never  entered  this  school ! ' 

"  His  allusion  m  the  good  work  one  of  our  grad- 
uates is  accomjjlishing  in  Bitlis  was  encouraging.* 

"  Our  missionary  brethren  then  spoke ;  Mr.  Wil- 
liams, through  Mr.  H.  N.  Barnum, — one  of  his  char- 
acteristic and  telUng  speeches.  The  pith  of  it  lay 
in  'chewing  the  cud'  of  Bible  truth  every  day 
and  all  day ;  meditation  on  the  morning  reading, 
be  it  never  so  small  a  portion  ;  alluding  to  the  ru- 
minating of  cows  and  buffaloes. 

"  The  homely  illustration  will  cause  it  to  stick ! 
I  think  no  one  present  will  ever  forget  it;  and 
many  may  practice  this  sj^iritual  rumination  in  con- 
sequence. Our  new  brother,  H.  S.  Barnum,  made 
a  brief  and  pleasant  speech  by  the  aid  of  his  name- 
sake's tongue.  Meanwhile,  many  of  the  people  had 
come  into  the  evening  meeting,  and  it  was  decided 
to  go  right  on  and  unite  the  two  exercises. 

"Rev.  H.  N.  Barnum  gave  a  most  solemn  and 
thrilling  turn  to  his  closing  address  by  pointing  to 
the  last  great '  Examination '  awaiting  us  all,  when 

*  A  widow  named  Mariam,  who  went  from  Harpoot,  has  for 
two  years  beeu  teaching  a  school  in  Bitlis,  about  eight  days'  journe  y 
east  from  liar  poet,  where  Simon  is  pastor  of  a  church. 


HAIiPOOT  FEMALE   SEMINARY.  209 

the  Master  woiilcl  present  his  fliplomas,  in  the 
words, '  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant,  en- 
ter thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord ! '     I  never  knew 

Mr.  B to  rise  to  such  a  strain  of  eloquence  (I 

perfectly  understood  his  Turkish),  and  the  effect 
was  electrical.  Two  or  three  earnest  prayers  were 
offered,  and  the  exercises  closed. 

"Thus  ended  the  day.  The  next  morning, 
Friday,  the  school  assembled  for  a  '  farewell  meet- 
ing.' The  graduates  were  seated  by  themselves. 
I  read  portions  of  Scripture,  which  I  wished  them 
to  mark  and  read  often,  and  then  made  my  fare- 
well speech,  reviewing  the  past  three  years,  and 
looking  forward  to  their  future,  and  to  eternity.  It 
was  a  solemn  season.  We  all  wept  together.  Then 
Kohar  spoke  of  our  pleasant  relations,  and  what  a 
joy  and  comfort  some  of  those  dear  women  had 
been  to  her ;  and,  as  I  had  addressed  her  as  my 
'  faithful  fellow-worker,  without  whose  influence  to 
aid  much  of  my  labor  would  have  been  lost,'  she 
said  I  had  been  '  a  mother,  more  than  a  mother  to 
her,'  &c.  &c.  Then  Eva*  addressed  the  school. 
She  told  them  how  great  had  been  her  desire  to 
gee  tlie  Harpoot  school,  and  now  that  God  had 

*  Tlie  Arabic-speaking  assistant  teacher. 


210  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

brought  her  here  to  take  a  part  in  it,  how  great 
was  her  joy  to  see  its  prosperity.  She  gaA'e  theni 
some  excellent  words  of  advice,  and  then  led  us  to 
the  mercy-seat  in  a  fervent  prayer. 

"  Toma,  of  Diarbekir,  followed  in  such  an  out- 
pouring of  soul  in  supplication,  thanksgiving,  and 
praise  as  could  only  come  from  the  indwelling  of 
the  Spirit.  I  was  amazed,  humbled,  and  rejoiced  ! 
We  then  sang  a  hymn,  and  descended  from  that 
holy  mount  of  heavenly  communion.  Misses  Sey- 
mour and  Warfield  were  present,  and  each  said  a 
few  sweet  words  through  me  to  the  school,  asking 
their  prayers  for  success  in  the  study  of  the  lan- 
guage during  the  winter.  I  followed  them  in  a  few 
remarks  about  Miss  W.'s  mother  and  Miss  Sey- 
mour's friends,  —  what  it  is  to  leave  all  for  Christ. 

"After  they  were  dismissed,  I  saw  the  good 
Pastor  Simon  surrounded  by  a  group  of  our  girls, 
in  earnest  and  apparently  solemn  talk  with  them. 
He  soon  after wai*ds  wished  to  see  me,  and  then 
asked  if  there  was  one  of  our  scholars  who  would 
be  willing  to  go  and  labor  in  Moosh.*  I  thought  I 
would  test  them  all,  and,  going  down-stairs,  said, 
'  Pastor  Simon  wishes  to  know  if  any  of  our  schol- 

»  See  pnge  208. 


HAUPOOT  FEMALE   SEMINARY.  211 

ars  are  ready  to  go  and  work  for  Christ  in  the  dark 
reo-ions  bn'ond.'  The  word  ilcw  from  room  to 
room,  and  five  answered  to  the  call,  with  such 
beaming  foces  you  would  have  thought  some  great 
joy  had  come  to  them, — Marind,  of  Malatia,  Ma- 
riam,  of  Maden,  Marta,  of  Arabkir,  Manoosh,  of 
Diarbekir,  and  Badaskhan,  of  Shepik  * 

"  They  almost  ran  to  meet  the  pastor.     It  was 
no  idle  enthusiasm.     They  had  counted  the  cost, 
and  received  this  call  as  a  direct  answer  to  prayer. 
It  made  me  think  of  Dr.  Anderson  or  Dr.  Clark 
going  to   South  Hadley  for  missionary  teachti-s. 
Most  kindly  and  faithfully  did  B.  Simon  lay  the 
whole  undertaking  before  them,  portraying  the  tri- 
als they  would  have  to  endure  among  a  people  so 
low,  degraded,  and  ignorant.     He  told  them  of  his 
wife's  experience   in   Khanoos,  where   Loosintak, 
their  first  child,  was  born  in   a  stable;  liow  the 
water  leaked  from  the  earth  above,  and  was  kept 
from  her  bed  by  a  shelving  board.    That  stable  was 
partly  under  ground,  dark  and   dirty.     Then   he 
gave  thera  encouragement  to  hope  that  seed  sown 
would  sometime  spring  up. 
"  Our  girls  will  never,  I  trust,  lose  the  benefit  of 

•  These  places  are  !"oun(l  f  ii  the  accompanying  map. 


212  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

tliat  long  niul  intei-esting  visit  with  this  godly  man. 
It  makes  me  realize  the  importance  of  keeping  alive 
the  bond  of  sympathy  between  our  scholars  and 
the  native  pastors. 

"  Saturday  morning  I  was  requested  by  Mrs. 
Allen  to  come  to  her  parlor,  as  some  persons  were 
wishing  to  see  me  there.  I  found  there  assembled 
the  class  of  graduates,  who  greeted  me  most  cor- 
dially and  gave  me  a  seat  of  honor.*  After  a  few 
moments,  Toma,  of  Diarbekir,  advanced,  and  in  be- 
half of  the  class  j^resented  me  with  a  handsome 
silver  back-comb,  suitably  inscribed,  as  a  testimo- 
nial of  their  grateful  affection.f  She  added,  as  the 
tears  started  to  her  eyes,  '  We  owe  you  more  than 
words  or  gifts  can  tell ! '  The  whole  class  looked 
so  joyful,  and  all  requested  that  I  would  '  wear  it 
every  day.' 

"  It  was  a  perfect  surprise.  I  had  no  thought  of 
their  attempting  anything  cf  the  kind.  I  told  them 
so,  and  that  I  did  not  seek  theirs  but  them ;  that 
I  had  received,  during  the  summer,  proof  of  aifec- 

*  This  distinction  between  the  chief  seat  and  others  is  still,  on  all 
occasions,  regarded  in  the  Orient. 

t  The  class  got  this  up  entirely  among  themselves,  no  one  beside 
knowing  of  it.  They  took  a  comb  of  horn  to  the  silversmith  and  had 
him  try  till  he  succeeded. 


BAltPOOT  FEM  iLE   SEMINARY.  213 

tion,  in  words  and  actions,  of  love  and  sympathy., 
which  1  prized  more  than  treasures  of  gold  and  sil- 
ver. I  could  say  in  all  sincerity  that  I  loved  them 
tenderly,  and  it  had  been  very  sweet  to  teach  them, 
this  year  especially ;  the  parting  with  them  would 
be  very  hard,  were  it  not  for  the  hope  of  a  meeting 
beyond,  when  our  work  is  all  done. 

"They  also  presented  Kohar  with  a  silver  pen- 
liolder,  prettily  inscribed,  and  she  made  a  speech  in 
return.  I  then  invited  them  to  come,  with  their 
companions,  to  the  reunion  in  the  school-room  that 
eveninor.  Finding  that  there  would  be  no  social 
gathering  of  graduates  this  year,  I  concluded  to 
attempt  a  general  '  sociable '  myself  Removing 
the  desks,  &c.,  from  the  school-room,  and  spread- 
ing carpets  and  rugs,  quite  changed  its  ajipearance. 
Mr.  Allen's  melodeon  was  brought  down,  and 
placed  near  one  of  the  posts  in  the  center,  a  row 
of  chairs  was  left  around  the  wall,  two  or  three 
small  tables  in  the  corners,  and  lamps  hung  on  the 
posts  and  walls,  and  our  arrangements  were  com- 
plete. The  recitation-room  was  also  fitted  up  for 
use  if  necessary. 

'^We  procured   a   liberal  supply  of  bread   and 
grapes,  Pilibos  made  a  large  quantity  of  cookies, 


214  TEN    YE. Ills    ON   THE    E  UP  URATES. 

Buch  as  they  like,  and  others  sent  native  sweets,  oi 
sugars  and  nuts.  A  cup  of  tea,  sweetened  in  boil- 
ing, and  without  milk,  finished  our  entertainment. 
The  guests  came  early,  just  after  sunset,  at  the 
ringing  of  the  chapel  bell.  The  students  of  both 
schools,  Arabs,  Koords,  and  all,  man-ied  and  un- 
married !  *  pastors,  preachers  who  were  in  the  city, 
and  their  wives,  besides  two  or  three  others  con- 
nected with  our  scholars,  —  these,  with  the  mission- 
ary families,  made  up  a  company  of  about  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty  souls.  Music  was  the  principal 
entertainment  of  the  evening.  We  sang  most  of  the 
new  songs  which  all  so  much  admire,  — '  Love  at 
home,'  '  Come,  come  away,'  &c.  &c.,  also  a  few  of 
the  old  ones  which  were  called  for.  There  was  no 
formality.  All  seemed  at  home,  and  there  was 
plenty  of  pleasant  conversation  among  all  present, 
but  nothing  rude  or  boisterous.  It  pleased  me 
much  to  see  our  dear  new  sisters,  '  Hattie  and 
Mary,'t  mingling  with  the  crowd,  who  sat  on  the 
floor,  and  endeavoring  to  talk  with  them,     I  saw 

*  Why  this  exclamation  point  ?  Because  to  allow  unmarrred  men, 
ei  2n  theological  students,  thus  to  meet  the  girls  of  the  female  sem- 
inary, is  a  thing  so  unusual  in  the  Orient  as  to  call  for  a  mark  at 
•'wonder  and  surprise." 

t  Misses  Seymour  and  Warfield. 


HARPOOT  FEMALE   SEMINARY.  215 

Marine  Uglitl}'  touch  Pastor  Marcliros,  of  Malntia, 
and  heard  her  say  to  Miss  Seymour,  '  This  is  my 
pastor^  That  look  and  word  had  a  whole  ser- 
mon in  it  to  my  mind.  It  spoke  volumes  for  the 
endearing  relation  of  pastor  and  people. 

"  I  saw  Mr.  "Williams,  who  entered  most  heartily 
into  the  spirit  of  the  ^evening,  trying  to  converse 
with  Bai'on  Simon,  (Jf  Bitlls.  He  asked  me  to 
ask  him  how  he  thought  he  would  enjoy  that  rela- 
tion,* and  when  the  good  man  said  he  had  been 
thinking  much  since  he  came  here,  and  he  felt  now 
that  it  was  the  will  of  God,  and  he  should  hold 
out  no  longer,  Mr.  Williams  exclaimed,  '  Glory 
to  God!'  and  through  me  said  to  him,  'There  is  no 
more  blessed  work  on  earth  than  that  of  a  loving 
and  beloved  pastor  of  a  loving  people.  Your 
beard  is  still  black ;  you  may  yet  bring  hundreds  of 
souls  into  the  kingdom.'  In  the  course  of  the  even- 
ing,  'Come  to  Jesus'  was  sung  by  the  six  Koords 
supported  by  the  '  Union,'     Soon  the  Arabic  stu- 

*  It  will  be  remembered  tbat  Baron  Simon  knowa  only  Armenian 
and  Turkish,  while  Jir.  Williams  uses  Arabic.  Baron  Simon  had, 
preuous  to  this  visit  to  Harpoot,  refused  to  become  pastor  of  th 
church  in  Bit'is,  and  it  was  this  new  resolution  which  gave  Mr.  Wil- 
liams so  much  joy.  Some  cf  the  native  pastors  of  ilarpoot  rchirned 
with  him  to  B and  put  him  into  the  pastorate. 


216  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPIltATES. 

dents  joined  in,  with  Mr.  Williams,  in  Arabic,  then 
the  Armenians  in  their  tongue,  and  so  on,  till  we 
were  all  singing  in  Jioe  languages  !  * 

"Pastor  Mardiros, of  Malatia,  closed  the  evening 
with  devotional  exercises,  directing  our  thoughts 
to  the  great  company  of  the  redeemed,  by  a  chap- 
ter of  Revelation.  He  said. he  could  think  of  noth- 
ing but  heaven  all  the  evening ;  and,  in  a  few 
words,  he  caused  us  to  look  forward  to  that  reun- 
ion in  the  presence  of  our  Lord  and  Master.  We 
sang  'Joyfully,  joyfully  onward  we  move,'  and  then 
united  with  him  in  prayer.  It  was  only  half-past 
ten  when  all  had  departed.  As  each  one  left,  they 
came  to  me,  and  with  a  cordial  grasp  of  the  hand 
thanked  me  for  the  pleasure  they  had  enjoyed. 
Their  faces  showed  that  it  was  genuine.  Eva  said 
it  had  been  'a  sweet  evening;'  our  Pastor  Mardi- 
ros said  afterwards,  '  It  was  a  delightful  scene ; ' 
and  others  remarked  that  it  was  the  pleasantest 
evening  they  ever  enjoyed ;  they  should  never  for- 
get it.     Our  missionaries  voted  it  a  '  success ; '  and  I 

*  The  "Koords"  are  the  Koordish-spealdng  Armenians  and 
Syrians,  whom  tlie  churches  are  supporting  and  educating  to  be  their 
missionaries  in  Koordistan.  The  live  lang  lages  were  Armenian, 
Arabic,  Koordish,  English,  and  Turkish,  the  last  being  used  by  Mr. 
H.  N.  Barnum. 


SARPOOT  FEMALE   SEMINARY.  217 

was  more  than  satisfied,  so  happy  that  I  did  not 
sleep  all  night  for  very  joy !  Sabbath  day  was 
most  blessed.  The  anniversary  sermon  by  Pastor 
Hagop  of  riulakegh  was  good,  and  full  of  the  apos- 
tolic spirit.  It  was  a  precious  communion  season 
that  afternoon. 

"  I  was  much  impressed  with  the  closing  prayer 
by  Baron  Simon.  He  prayed  that  they  miglit  iA\ 
'grow  gray  in  the  service  of  Christ,  bearing  hard- 
ness like  good  soldiers.' 

"  Monday  there  was  a  constant  succession  of  call 
ers  to  bid  good-bye.     In  the  afternoon,  three  of 
the  pastors  came  to  my  room,  with  one  or  two 
laymen,  to  examine  five  of  our  girls  for  admission 
to  the  church, 

"  The  examination  was  most  thorough  and  test- 
ing. Baron  Simon  had  been  anxious  that  Loosin- 
tak  should  be  examined  here,  where  she  had  pro- 
fessed to  meet  with  a  change  of  heart,  and  others 
wished  to  be  examined  with  her,  —  Marta,  Manoosh, 
Mariam,  of  Maden,  and  Heropsima,  of  Malatia.  I 
was  much  gratified  with  the  appearance  of  the 
girls,  and  I  doubt  if  the  pastors  ever  before  re- 
ceived so  intelligent  and  prompt  replies  from  this 
class  of  candidates.     They  seemed  quite  touched 


218  TEN    YEARS    ON    THE   EUPHRATES. 

by  their  answci-s  in  two  or  three  instances.  Marta, 
especially,  has  wonderfully  changed  since  you  saw 
her.  Her  mind  has  undergone  a  transformation  by 
the  working  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  I  can  attribute  to 
nothing  else  such  a  waking  up  of  intellect.  They 
pressed  her  much  to  know  why  she  was  so  anxious 
to  go  and  labor  in  distant  and  dark  regions;  why 
she  could  not  work  for  Christ  in  Arabkir.  At  last 
she  could  say  no  more,  she  had  gone  as  far  as  she 
could  properly  ;  then  Mariam  said,  very  discreetly, 
*Marta's  reason  is  one  she  can  not  well  state;  she 
has  seen  other  girls  there  turned  aside  from  the 
work,  and  she  fears  it  will  be  the  same  with  her, 
if  she  goes  home  to  labor.'  This  sent  a  few  quiet 
drops  from  Marta's  eyes.  The  pastors  looked 
very  sympathizing,  and  said,  '  Ah,  we  understand 
it.'  Strangely  enough,  I  had  failed  to  see  her  dif- 
ficulty, and  helped  probe  her  all  the  closer,  not 
thinking  of  the  danger  of  their  marrying  her  to 
somebody  in  common  life.  Have  I  told  you  of  a 
pleasant  little  conversation  with  Loosintak  ?  I  was 
talking  with  her  one  day  of  her  future.  After  a 
pause,  she  timidly  said,  'It  is  a  joy  to  think  I  shall 
meet  you  in  heaven.  Last  Sabbath  Marta  and  I 
were  talking,  and  she  said,  'If  you  or  I  should  die, 


HARPOOT  FEMALE   SEMINARY.  219 

and  go  to  heaven  before  Miss  "West  does,  we  will 
go  and  find  her  mother,*  and  say.  Your  daughter 
led  us  to  Christ.'  Her  eyes  filled  as  she  spoke 
This  bit  of  comfort  seemed  so  direct  from  the  Lord 
that  it  quite  touched  my  heart." 

*  Miss  "W.'s  mother  died  May  23, 1867,  aged  seventy-six.  An  obitu 
ary  notice  of  her  was  given  in  the  Missionary  Herald  for  August, 
1867. 


15 


220  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHHATES. 


MISSIONARY    PREMISES    IN    HARPOOT. 

This  sketch  represents  the  eastern  portion  of  the  missionary; 
premises  in  Harpoot,  as  seen  from  the  soutli,  the  buildings  in 
front,  as  seen  in  the  slietch  at  tlie  close  of  chapter  second,  being 
unrepresented.  W  ith  the  exception  of  a  portion  on  the  right,  these 
buildings  were  not  erected  by  us,  but  bought  from  an  Armenian, 
who,  like  some  in  this  land,  having  a  sudden  run  of  iirosperity, 
built  a  bigger  house  than  he  could  support,  and  then  sold  it  for 
two  thousand  seven  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  which  was  probably 
less  than  half  its  cost.  Tlie  upper  story  of  the  large  building  is 
divided  into  three  parts,  Mr.  Allen  occupying  the  left,  I  the  mid- 
dle, and  the  teachers  of  the  female  seminary  the  right,  while 
the  lower  story  is  devoted  to  the  jDupils.  The  room  on  the  ex 
treme  right,  over  the  gate,  is  a  Bible  depository,  —  now  in  pro- 
cess of  building,  —  and  the  laden  donkey  issuing  from  the  front 
gate  is  supposed  to  be  the  one  mentioned  on  page  242, 

At  the  left  is  seen  a  stable,  between  which  and  the  house  is  the 
play-yard  of  the  seminary  pupils.  The  walled  and  terraced 
space  in  the  rear  of  the  buildings,  though  dignified  with  the 
name  of  "  garden,"  is,  with  the  exception  of  the  few  trees  which 
are  kept  alive  by  a  weekly  goatskin  bottle  of  water  in  the  rainless 
summer,  a  mere  rocky,  gravely  waste,  as  ai'e  all  the  mountain- 
tops  and  sides. 

Upon  the  hill-top  in  the  rear  is  seen  a  part  of  a  Turkish  ceme- 
tery, which  extends  far  to  the  north  and  east,  covering  many 
hundreds  of  acres.  Indeed,  the  city  is  nearly  encircled  by  tliese 
graveyards,  which,  during  the  many  centuries  since  Hari^oot 
began  to  be,  have  received  to  their  often  re-opened  graves  the 
successive  generations  of  its  population. 


O 
O 
1-3 


HARPOOT   FEMALE   SEMINARY.  221 

Upon  the  outside  of  the  roof  of  the  large  house  is  seen  a  sort 
of  railing,  or  "battlement,"  such  as  God  bade  the  Israelites 
build  around  their  houses.  Deut.  xxii.  8.  Persons  sometimes 
fall  from  the  roofs  which  have  no  such  protection,  and  die.  We 
can  see  how  readily  one  can,  like  Peter  (Acts  x.  9),  go  upon  the 
house-top  to  pray.  The  "battlement"  upon  one  side  of  this 
house  is  of  boards,  and  so  close  and  high  as  to  form  a  place  of 
real  retirement,  where,  in  the  heat  of  summer,  we  sometimes 
sleep  at  night.  The  house  is  built  upon  the  mountain-side,  by 
digging  into  it,  so  that  while  the  front  portion  of  the  roof  is 
some  thirty  feet  above  the  road,  the  back  portion  is  level  with 
the  terrace  of  the  "  garden." 

Just  to  the  right  of  the  female  seminary  is  the  outer  gate,  or 
door,  of  the  house-yard  ;  such  a  one,  perhaps,  as  in  Acts  xii.  13 
is  called  the  "  door  of  the  gate."  Sometimes  these  outer  gates 
have  inserted  in  them  a  smaller  door,  through  which  a  single 
person  may  pass  without  opening  the  larger  and  heavier  gate, 
■which  must  of  course  be  opened  for  beasts  of  burden.  Some 
say  that  one  of  the  gates  of  Jerusalem  had  such  a  small  door 
inserted  in  or  by  it,  called  the  "  needle's  eye,"  and  that  to  this 
the  Saviour  referred  when  he  said,  "It  is  easier  for  a  camel  to 
go  thi'ough  a  needle's  eye  than  for  a  rich  man  to  en'er  into  the 
kingdom  of  God."  Luke  xviii.  25. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

FRUITS. 

So  shall  my  word  be  that  goeth  forth  out  of  my  mouth;  it  shall 
not  return  unto  me  void.  —  Isa.  Iv.  11. 

fl^E  have  thus  far  looked  chiefly  at  the 
Ipj  work  to  be  done,  and  the  means  and 
mode  of  doing  it.  We  come  now  to 
the  question  of  results.  What  has  been 
the  effect  of  these  various  methods  of  present- 
ing divine  truth  to  the  ignorant  and  supersti- 
tious population  of  this  mission-field  ? 

And  first,  among  the  Mohammedans,  who  are 
the  Arabs,  the  Koords,  and  the  Turks.  Among 
the  first  no  work  has  been  done,  and  among 
the  second  little  besides  calling  their  attention 
to  the  Christian  system,  and,  among  that  por- 
tion of  them  known  as  Kuzzlebashes,  awaken- 
ing a  spirit  of  intellectual  inquiry,  wliich  will 
in  the  end  lead  to  good  results,  but  is  so  per- 

222 


FRUITS.  223 

verted  by  their  pantheistic  notions^  as  to  prom* 
ise  little  immediate  good. 

Much  greater  benefit  has  been  conferred  npon 
the  Turks  of  the  district.  Many  copies  of  the 
Scriptures  have  been  sold  to  them,  by  the  read- 
ing  of  which,  as  well  as  by  listening  occasion- 
ally to  preaching,  and  oftener  still  to  informal 
talk  upon  Christian  doctrine,  but  especially  by 
their  seeing  real  Christianity  illustrated  in  the 
worship  and  the  lives  of  its  Protestant  profes- 
sors, the  mass  of  them  have  been  intellectually 
enlightened,  and  now  look  upon  the  Christian 
svstem  witii  feelings  far  different  from  those 
cherished  years  ago.  By  this,  as  well  as  by 
the  softening,  enervating  influence  of  age  upon 
Mohammedanism  itself,  the  old  spirit  of  fanati- 
cism has  largely  departed.  Here  and  there 
among  them  a  man  avows  a  belief  of  Chris- 
tianity, which,  however,  he  fails  to  prove  sin- 
cere by  a  Christian  life  ;  while  very  many  of 
them  despairingly  anticipate  the  day  when  the 
crescent  shall  give  place  to  the  cross,  consulnig 
tliemsclves  with  the  hope  that  with  their  faith 
will   also  pass  away  those  political  evilrf   and 


224  TEN    YEARS   ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

burdens,  which  they  ignorantly  attribute  to  the 
sultan  and  his  ministers,  instead  of  the  people, 
of  whose  character  such  rulers  are  the  only  fit- 
ting rei)resentatives. 

The  chief  "  results  "  have  been  among  the 
nominal  Cliristians,  mainly  the  Armenians,  of 
whom  mention  was  made  in  chapter  second. 
Some  of  these  results  have  been  already  inci- 
dentally mentioned,  such  as  waking  up  popular 
feeling  in  favor  of  education,  both  among  those 
who  adhere  to  the  missionaries  and  are  called 
Protestants,  and  those  who  do  not. 

One  eifect  of  the  intellectual  awakening,  fol- 
lowed as  it  is  so  largely  by  studying  the  Bible, 
has  been  to  bring  the  priesthood  into  contempt. 
The  influence  they  formerly  had  over  the  su- 
perstitious people,  so  that  the  fear  of  being 
cursed  by  a  priest  was  sufficient  to  turn  multi- 
tudes away  from  seeking  the  truth,  is  now 
comparatively  unknown.  As  a  result  of  this, 
the  swarms  of  priests  who  formerly  preyed 
upon  and  domineered  over  the  people  are  fast 
passing  away.  In  ITarpoot  city  and  its  fifty- 
four  out-stations,  in  which  years  ago  were  two 


FRUITS.  225 

hundred  and  fifty-six  priests,  there  are  at  pres- 
ent but  one  hundred  and  forty-five.  It  is  now 
difficult  to  persuade  any  except  the  lowest  of 
the  people  to  become  priests.  It  is  a  common 
feeling  that  the  influence  and  honor  of  the 
office  have  departed.  The  woman  who  was 
spoken  of  in  the  last  chapter,  as  offering  to 
give  her  daughter  in  marriage  to  a  Protestant, 
lias  a  son-in-law  in  a  village  near,  who  was 
about  to  be  ordained  as  priest.  When  her 
consent  was  asked,  she  made  inquiry,  and, 
learning  that  a  Protestant  teacher  had  gone 
there,  said, "  Then  all  the  people  will  become 
Protestants.  Why  should  he  be  a  priest  to  be 
left  alone?  "  In  earlier  days,  she  might  have 
hoped  that  he  too  would  turn  Protestant,  ana 
be  employed  as  a  missionary  helper,  but  our 
rule  not  to  employ  priests,  however  soundly 
converted,  is  well  known. 

Another  effect  of  this  awakened  public  spirit 
is  to  cut  off  the  support  of  the  Armenian  mo- 
nasteries, with  which  the  country  is  filled,  no 
less  than  thirteen  being  in  the  Harpoot  field. 


226  TEN    YEARS   ON    THE   EUPHRATES. 

But  their  revenues,  and  with  them  their  glory 
and  power,  are  passing  away. 

The  monastery  of  Hulakegh,  which  formerly 
collected  upwards  of  three  hundred  measures 
of  wheat  from  that  village  and  Bizmishen,  ob- 
tained, in  1866,  but  eighteen  measures  ;  and 
from  some  monasteries  the  crowd  of  hungry 
"  vartaheds''^  *  have  departed  elsewhere  for  food. 

It  is  a  fact  of  interest  that  while,  at  one 
time,  in  Harpoot  and  its  fifty-four  out-stations 
there  were  nine  hundred  and  fifty-three  fami- 
lies of  Armenian  papists,  there  are  now  but 
two  hundred  and  thirty-tliree.  The  word  of 
God  has  proved  too  strong  for  tlie  man  of  sin, 
backed,  as  he  has  been,  by  the  influence  of  a 
French  consul.  In  Harpoot  city,  where  at  one 
time  they  made  a  great  show,  there  is  not  now 
a  papist. 

But  a  more  encouraging  result  of  this  intel- 
lectual awakening  is  seen  in  the  public  feel- 
ing of  the  community  in  regard  to  preaching. 
Formerly,  anybody  who  could  talk  was  accept- 

*  An  order  of  unmarried  ecclesiastics.    The  priests  marry,  bir  only 
once,  for  so  they  interpret  1  Tim.  iii.  2. 


FRUITS.  227 

al'le  alike  in  Armenian  church  and  Protestant 
"jhapel,  whether  he  talked  sense  or  nonsense. 
It  was  to  us,  at  one  time,  a  painful  question 
what  to  do  to  cure  the  people  of  the  notion 
that  any  sort  of  a  man  with  a  tongue  would  do 
for  a  preacher.  The  popular  prejudice  was  as 
inveterate  as  its  twin  feeling "  on  the  part  of 
some  in  the  churches  at  home,  —  that  almost 
anybody  will  do  for  a  foreign  missionary.  The 
opening  of  the  theological  seminary  made  the 
impression  among  the  Protestants  that  preach- 
ers should  come  from  that.  But  to  liave  en- 
tered its  doors  was  enough,  just  as  witli  some 
more  intelligent  communities  the  D.  D.  at- 
tached to  a  man's  name  is  sometimes  a  suffi- 
cient guarantee  to  give  weight  to  wordy  empti- 
ness. A  very  feeble  but  good  brother  from 
Perchcnj  having  been  received,  one  who  had 
not  previously  been  able  even  to  lead  a  prayer- 
meeting,  we  were  amused  by  a  special  request 
that  he  should  come  the  first  Sabbath  and  oc- 
cupy their  pulpit.  They  wished  to  see  'he 
wonderful  change  which  a  few  lessons  in  the 
seminary  hud  made  in  him. 


228  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

But  all  that  is  changed  now.  By  degrees 
flic  more  intelligent,  discerning  people  of  the 
villages  began  to  distinguish  between  the  mem- 
bers of  the  junior  and  the  senior  classes,  and, 
in  applying  for  men,  to  say,  "  Send  us  a  sen- 
ior, if  you  please  ;  "  adding  sometimes,  "  Our 
people  are  becoming  critical.  They  say  that 
the  man  you  sent  us  last  week  couldn't  preach." 

Later  still,  they  began  to  discern  the  differ- 
ence between  members  of  the  same  class,  and 
now  many  of  them  are  as  sharp  critics  on  ser- 
mons and  preachers  as  congregations  here  in 
New  England,  only  in  a  different  way  from 
some  of  them.  No  amount  of  ability  and  elo- 
quence will  suffice,  if  the  preacher  fail  to  im- 
part clearly  some  thought  from  the  Bible  worth 
carrying  home,  and  in  such  a  form  that  they 
can  carry  it. 

We  had  purposely  endeavored,  as  far  as  wo 
dared,  to  awaken  this  popular  feeling,  in  order 
to  use  it  as  a  spur  to  quicken  the  steps  of 
oriental  indolence  and  inertia  in  the  seminary. 
Tiie  people  arc  now  in  danger  of  passing  the 
goal,  and  wo  have  begun  to  put  on  the  brakes, 


FRUITS.  229 

or  rather  the  Master  is  doing  it,  in  a  way  wliich 
is  naentioned  in  chapter  tenth,  in  speakhig  of 
Hooeli.  Another  good- result  has  been  secured, 
in  an  increasing  demand,  on  the  part  of  the 
Armenians,  that  the  gospel  in  their  spoken 
tongue  sliould  be  read  and  preached  in  their 
churches ;  and,  in  thirty-three  of  these,  either 
regular  or  occasional  services  have  been  held, 
aside  from  the  established  church  service. 

But  this  influence  of  reading  and  Bible  study 
has  not  been  merely  intellectual,  — under  which 
name  I  might  mention  an  increasing  spirit  of 
awakened  enterprise,  rousing  the  people  from 
their  condition  of  sluggishness,  and  urging 
them  on  iu  the  path  of  civilization.  It  lias 
also  been  moral,  and  has  done  much  to  elevate 
the  standard  of  morality  among  the  people  at 
large.  In  Aghansi,  a  Turkish  and  Armenian 
village,  a  Turk  asked  in  surprise  what  had  hap- 
pened to  three  profane,  quarrelsome  women, 
that  he  heard  their  profanity  and  wrangling  no 
more.  He  understood  the  cause,  when  told 
that  a  Protestant  helper  had  come  with  the 
l]il)lc  a  few  weeks  before.     Tlie  same  influence 


230  TEN    YEARS    ON    THE   EUPHRATES. 

has  told  'so  powerfully  upon  popular  sentiment 
tliat  to  lie  or  cheat  is  sufficient  now  to  make 
the  detected  man  blush,  which  was  not  the 
case  years  ago. 

The  cause  of  temperance  too  is  advanced. 
Those  who  take  the  Bible  as  their  guide  at 
once  leave  off  wine-drinking,  and  that  without 
ai  y  special  instruction  from  us. 

Another  effect  which  appears  on  every  hand, 
hut  specially  among  those  who  are  called  Pro- 
testants, is  the  elevation  of  woman  from  a  con- 
dition little  better  than  slavery,  to  her  true 
place  as  the  loved  and  honored  companion  of 
her  husband.  Pages  might  be  filled  with 
statements  and  incidents  illustrating  the  grad- 
ual process  by  which  this  civilizing,  elevating 
work  goes  on  among  both  sexes.  Never  shall 
I  forget  the  amazement  manifested  by  the  peo- 
ple when  first  seeing  the  respect  shown  by  the 
missionaries  to  our  wives.  "  What,  a  woman 
enter  a  door  before  a  man  !'^ 

Then,  convinced  that  our  ladies  deserved  the 
honor  shown  tliem,  they  lamented  their  own 
hard    lot   in    not   having    such   wiv  )s.     "  IIow 


FRUITS.  231 

happens  it,"  said  a  man  to  me  one  day,  "  that 
all  the  missionaries'  wives  are  ano;cls  ?  "  But 
now  some  of  them  have  angels  too  for  com- 
panions. 

Step  by  step  have  the  wives  risen  in  intelli- 
gence and  worth,  and  step  by  step  have  the 
husbands  too  advanced,  till  there  are  many 
family  circles  where  mutual  respect  and  love 
make  the  twain  really  one  flesh. 

But  all  these  results  are  merely  incidental 
to  the  one  great  aim  of  bringing  men  to  Christ, 
and  organizing  Christian  churches.  It  is  by 
this,  by  seeing  the  gospel  become  the  savor  of 
life  unto  life  to  scores  and  hundreds,  that  our 
hearts  have  been  made  truly  glad.  In  Harpoot 
city  and  its  fifty-four  out-stations,  during  the 
winter  of  1866-67,  usually  about  four  thousand 
persons  heard  the  gospel  on  the  Sabbath,  and, 
including  one  hundred  and  sixty-nine  members 
of  the  seven  churches  previously  spoken  of  as 
put  in  our  charge  by  the  enlargement  of  our 
mission-field,  there  were,  in  April,  1867,  thir- 
teen churclies,  with  four  hundred  and  tliree 
members,  and  nearly  three  hundred  other  hope* 


232  TEN    YEARS   ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

fill  Christians,  waiting  to  be  received  to  exist- 
ing churches,  or  to  be  organized  into  new  ones.* 
About  two  hundred  of  these  last  were  new  con- 
verts, fruits  of  a  revival  with  which  several 
communities  were  blessed  in  the  winter  of 
18(36-67. 

Of  the  eleven  pastors  of  these  churches,  six 
are  wholly  supported  by  their  own  people. 
The  two  churches  formed  in  1867  receive  aid 
from  us  equal  to  half  of  their  pastor's  salary, 
and  the  other  three  a  less  amount.  While, 
however,  the  total  salary  of  these  eleven  pas- 
tors amounts  to  but  about  $1300,  the  churches 
and  congregations  paid,  during  the  year  1866, 
for  support  of  pastors,  chapels,  schools,  mis- 
sionary work,  etc.,  $3,969,  in  gold. 

The  work  of  forming  churches,  which  we  did 
not  begin  till  1864,  will  now  go  on  more  ra}> 
idly,  and  it  is  hoped  that,  within  the  coming 
year,  six  others  will  be  organized,  one  of  which 
will  assume  the  entire  support  of  its  pastor 
from    the    first.     Notwithstanding    our    rule, 

*  It  will  be  borne  in  mind  that  this  does  not  include  the  churches 
In  Diarbekir,  Mardin,  and  other  places  outside  of  the  Harpoot  field. 


FRUITS.  233 

allowing  us,  when  necessary,  to  aid  a  cliurch 
in  a  decreasing  ratio  {ot  jive  years,  all  of  those 
formed  by  us  previous  to  1867  now  pay  all 
their  own  expenses,  including  schools. 

It  may  be  interesting  to  take  a  glance  at 
some  of  the  places  where  churches  are  soon  to 
be  formed,  Tiio  first  is  in  the  eastern  part  of 
Harpoot  city,  where  already  a  chapel  has  been 
built,  the  people  paying  four  hundred  and  forty- 
one  dollars  of  the  seven  hundred  and  twenty 
dollars  expense.  A  separate  service  is  sus- 
tained here  with  the  hope  of  soon  forming  a 
second  church  and  settling  a  pastor. 

In  Geghi  Kasabah,  among  the  mountains, 
four  days'  journey  north-east  from  Harpoot,  a 
man  named  Sarkis  years  ago  became  possessed 
of  a  Testament,  which  he  then  could  not  read, 
but  had  some  one  read  it  to  him.  The  book 
was  taken  away  and  ])urncd,  and  Sarkis  cast 
into  prison.  But  a  fire  was  kindled  which 
could  not  be  put  out.  In  1858,  we  visited  the 
place,  and  found  a  little  company  of  sixteen 
men  bold  enough  to  call  themselves  our  friends. 
It  was  to  them  and  others,  that,  at  a  later  day, 


234  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

the  sermon  on  lying  spoken  of  in  chapter  sixth 
was  preached  ;  and  now  we  hope  that  enough 
persons  have  been  converted,  and  learned  to 
watch  against  their  besetting  sin,  to  form  a 
church.  A  graduate  of  the  seminary  in  1867, 
a  "  first-class  "  man,  one  who  was  much  sought 
after,  and  had  a  call  to  Husenik,  his  native 
village,  chose  to  accept  a  call  from  this  wild 
region,  because  there  he  can  bear  more  hard- 
ships for  Christ,  and  he  feared  that  it  might  be 
difficult  to  find  a  man  able  and  willing  to  go. 
The  little  company  of  believers  are  sorely  per- 
secuted by  both  Armenians  and  Turks,  but  we 
hope  that,  with  such  a  leader,  they  will  have 
much  of  the  martyr  spirit,  and  be  a  bright 
light  in  the  midst  of  those  mountains. 

Two  days'  journey  east  from  Harpoot,  on  the 
northern  bank  of  the  Euphrates,  is  Palu,  also 
in  the  midst  of  a  wild  region.  Here  the  twelve 
women  mentioned  in  chapter  fifth  were  whipped 
into  reading,  and  some  of  them  are  zealous 
workers  for  Christ.  We  hope  that  of  the 
eighty  persons  who  usually  attend  meetings 
there,  twelve  are  Christians.     A  young  gradu- 


FRUITS.  235 

ate  of  the  seminary  has  just  gone  there  as  a 
candidate,  and,  if  a  certain  Diotrephes,  named 
Stepan,  does  not  get  the  desired  pre-eminence, 
we  hope  he  will  be  settled  as  pastor. 

Some  fifty  miles  south  from  Ilarpoot,  in  the 
Taurus  Mountains,  is  Choonkoosh,  a  city  of 
some  six  thousand  inhabitants,  Turks  and  Ar- 
menians. I  made  my  first  visit  there  in  1857, 
with  Mr.  Dunmore,  when,  after  several  hours' 
effort,  and  by  the  aid  of  the  Turkish  governor, 
we  secured  a  lodging-place,  only  to  be  driven 
out  by  a  wild  mob  composed  largely  of  women.* 
When  they  had  thrust  us  out  into  the  rain  and 
pitchy  darkness,  the  Xanthippe  who  owned  the 
house  consented  to  let  us  go  back  on  two  con- 
ditions :  (1.)  That  we  should  accept  a  meaner 
room  ;  (2.)  That  we  should  leave  at  daylight. 
We  consented,  and  ere  we  could  see  the  day- 
light, her  shrill  cry,  "  Up,  and  begone  !  "  woke 

•  Probably  most  readers  of  Acts  xiii.  60  do  not  think  wliy  tho 
Jews  stirred  up  the  "  devout  and  lionorable  women  "  against  I'aul 
and  Barnabas.  No  doubt  then,  as  now,  it  was  because  they  hoped 
that  women  would  escape  punishment  for  an  act  which  men  could 
not  safely  do. 

A  mob  of  deviiut  women  stirred  up  by  their  husbands,  for  thin 
reason,  once  gave  me  a  good  stoning  in  the  city  of  Harpoot. 
16 


236  TEN    YEARS   ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

US  from  sleep,  and  sent  us  forth  to  seek  a  new 
place  for  that  Sabbath's  rest.  The  wild  people 
seemed  ready  to  kill  us,  and  the  next  day  we 
left.  The  following  year  we  sent  out  a  helper 
there,  but  a  mob  drove  him  from  the  place,  and 
he  was  put  back  and  retained  there  only  by  the 
pasha's  power.  Many  copies  of  the  Scriptures 
were  sold,  and  the  good  seed  took  root.  When, 
in  the  autumn  of  1866,  we  missionaries,  with 
the  members  of  the  Harpoot  Evangelical  Union, 
took  this  route  to  Diarbckir,  what  a  different 
scene  met  our  eyes  !  In  place  of  a  mob  of  wo- 
men to  drive  us  out,  urged  on  by  a  fierce  crowd 
of  men,  the  "  brethren  "  led  us  to  a  prominent 
ihree-story  building,  which,  with  its  massive 
walls  of  stone  three  feet  thick,  and  bound  to- 
gether by  timber,  seemed  built  to  stand  for  ever. 
It  was  erected  upon  the  mountain-side,  and  had 
less  room  in  the  lower  story  ;  but  in  that  was 
a  stable,  and  a  school-room  for  one  hundred 
children.  The  second  story  was  divided  into 
rooms  for  a  pastor,  and  in  the  upper  story  was 
a  room  to  seat  five  hundred  or  moxe  persons. 
Around  the  walls  were  standing  ladders  with  a 


FRUITS.  237 

pile  of  mud  at  tlie  foot  of  each,  and  a  woman 
making  little  balls  and  rapidly  tossing  them  up 
to  another  woman  at  the  top  of  the  ladder, 
who  quickly  spread  them  on  the  wall  for 
plastering.  And  this  was  a  women's  plas- 
tering-bee,  for  the  more  speedy  completion  of 
the  chapel,  that  tiie  missionaries  miglit  preach 
to  them.  The  stone  and  timber  they  and  tiieir 
husbands  had  brought,  the  latter  from  a  long 
distance ;  and,  with  four  hundred  dollars  aid 
from  us,  had  erected  a  building  which  would 
cost  probably  fifteen  hundred  dollars.  Of  the 
two  hundred  and  eighty  persons  who  are 
usually  present  at  meetings  there,  we  trust 
that  at  least  fifteen  are  real  Christians,  and 
these  we  hope  ere  long  to  see  organized  into  a 
church  with  a  pastor  of  tlieir  own,  whom  all 
the  congregation  will  aid  in  supporting. 

I  say,  "  We  hope  to  see  a  church  organ- 
ized," for,  in  accordance  with  the  principle 
that  the  churches  are  to  manage  their  own 
affairs,  they,  by  their  pastors  and  delegates, 
met  in  Ilurpoot,  Oct.  17th,  18G5,  to  consult  to- 
gether about  some  form  of  ecclesiastical  union. 


238  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

With  a  spirit  of  manly  earnestness  and  of 
Christian  feeling  which  surprised  and  gratified 
us,  they,  after  much  prayer  and  consultation, 
adopted  a  constitution,  of  which  the  following 
is  a  translation  :  — 

"We  thank  God  that  evamjelical  churches  have 
been  planted  in  this  land  by  the  missionaries  of 
the  American  Board ;  and,  though  it  is  the  right 
of  the  missionaries  still  to  jirosecute  their  special 
work  independently,  and  we  still  need  their  aid, 
yet,  feeling  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  native  pastor^ 
and  churches  to  undertake  this  work  themselves, 
and  knowing  that  this  can  be  done  only  by  imited 
action,  we,  therefore,  the  pastors  and  churches  of 
the  Harpoot  pashalic,  agree  to  form  a  union  by 
adopting  the  following — • 

CON^STITUTION. 

I.  The  name  of  thjs  body  shall  be  the  Evangel- 
ical Union  of  Harpoot. 

II.  Those  evangelical  churches  and  pastors  that 
give  their  assent  to  its  rules  may  be  members  of 
the  Union.  .  ' 

III.  Its  meetings  shall  be  composed  of  the  pas- 
tors and  one  delegate  from  each  church.     Mission- 


Fit  u ITS.  239 

arief)  of  the  American  Board,  pastors  from  other 
places,  and  licensed  preachers  within  our  own 
bounds,  may  be  members  without  the  right  of  vot- 
ing ;  but  no  one  shall  be  a  member  who  does  not 
unhesitatingly  receive  all  the  teachings  of  the 
IJible,  and  specially  those  fundamental  doctrines 
w^hich  are  briefly  expressed  in  the  Assembly's 
Shorter  Catechism. 

IV.  To  attain  the  object  of  our  Union  we  will 
strive  (a.)  To  promote  the  soundness  of  faith, 
peace,   purity,   activity,   and   increase   of   all  the 

churches,     (b.)  To  plant  new  churches  in  places 

» 
where  desirable,    (c.)  To  seek  out,  educate,  and  set 

apart  to  their  work,  men  suited  to  be  pastors, 
preachers,  or  teachers,  and,  (d.)  To  unite  all  the 
churches  in  a  strong  bond  of  Christian  fellowship, 
and  in  earnest  and  self-denying  efforts  to  extend, 
the  kingdom  of  Christ,  and  especially,  1.  By  giv- 
their  sons  and  daughters  to  the  work  of  Christ 
wherever  needed.  2.  By  aiding  to  support  poor 
persons  preparing  to  labor  for  Christ.  3.  By  aiding 
feeble  churches  to  support  their  pastors  and  teach- 
ers. 4.  By  supporting  preachers  and.  teachers  in 
unevangelized  places.  6.  By  erecting  suitable 
chujjels  and  school-houses  wherever  needed.    6.  By 


240  TEN    YEARS    OiV   THE   EUPHtATES. 

establishing,  in  all  the  cities  anrl  villages  of  ouf 
bounds,  good  schools,  whose  chief  object  shall  be 
to  make  their  pupils  intelligent  students  of  the 
Bible ;  and,  T.  By  supplying  every  person  with 
the  entire  Bible,  and  inducing  hira  to  study  it. 

V.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Union  to  deprive 
unworthy  pastors  or  preachers  of  their  office  ;  and, 
when  it  is  exceedingly  necessary,  a  pastor  may  be 
dismissed  with  honor  from  his  connection  with  one 
church  to  be  the  pastor  of  another.  Whenever 
any  members  of  a  church  appeal  to  the  Union 
against  any  decision  of  their  church,  their  appeal 
must  be  made  known  to  the  President  in  writing 
at  least  a  month  before  its  consideration,  that  he 
may  make  it  known  to  the  members. 

VI.  There  shall  be  one  regular  meeting  some- 
time during  the  autumn  of  each  year,  and  with 
the  ajiproval  of  two  churches  the  President  can 
call  a  special  meeting  at  any  time.  Not  less  than 
five  members  shall  be  a  quorum  in  any  meeting. 

VII.  The  officers  of  the  Union  shall  be  a  Pres- 
ident, a  Scribe,  a  Treasurer,  and  an  Examining 
Committee  of  three,  who  sh^.ll  be  chosen  annually 
by  ballot. 

VIII.  The  President  shall  preside  in  the  meet« 


FltUITS.  241 

Jngs,  and  in  his  absence  anojier  shall  be  chosen  to 
take  his  place.  The  Scribe  shall  keep  a  record  of 
all  the  doiniis  of  the  Union.  The  Treasurer  shall 
once  a  year  make  a  written  report  of  all  receipts 
and  expenditures.  The  Examining  Committee,  or 
one  of  their  number,  shall  once  a  year  visit  each 
one  of  the  churches  and  report  their  condition  to 
the  Union,  When  a  church  are  in  fault,  it  shall  be 
the  duty  of  the  Union  to  try  to  bring  them  to  re- 
pentance ;  and  any  church  which  shall  fail  to  heed 
Buch  efforts  shall  be  expelled  from  the  body." 

Articles  ninth  and  tenth  I  omit  as  not  of 
interest  to  the  reader.  It  will  be  seen  that 
here  is  a  pretty  extended  plan  of  Christian 
work  to  be  done, —  Bible  distribution,  an  educa- 
tion society  in  the  largest  sense  of  the  name, 
home  and  foreign  missions,  and  church  erec- 
tion. And  upon  all  these  labors  they  have  en- 
tered with  greater  or  less  zeal  and  effect. 

I  have  already  spoken  of  our  early  throwing 
the  care  and  expense  of  schools  upon  tliQ  peo- 
ple. They  are  doing  nobly  in  assuming  them, 
and  are  beginning  to  do  something  in  support- 
ing poor  men  preparing  for  the  ministry. 


242  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

Chiircli  eniction  is  entirely  in  their  hands, 
we  only  giving  "  grants  in  aid  "  where  we 
think  the  people  need  thera.  They  talce  the 
entire  responsibility  and  build,  we  giving  a 
fixed  amount,  which  is  usually  not  more  than 
from  one-fourth  to  one-third  of  the  estimated 
expense. 

Not  only  every  church,  but  every  community 
also  where  there  is  no  church,  has  a  Bible  so- 
ciety, which  buys  from  us  at  wholesale,  at 
twenty  per  cent,  discount  from  the  retail  price. 
The  books  are  carried  from  the  city  depository 
in  bags  on  the  backs  of  donkeys,  which,  in  win- 
ter, are  often  seen  standing  at  the  missionary's 
door.  "  Has  your  donkey  given  out  ?  "  or, 
"  Why  don't  you  feed  your  donkey  ? "  is  the 
phrase  for  stirring  up  a  negligent  Bible  society, 
and  one  well  understood,  and,  I  am  sorry  to  say, 
too  often  called  into  use,  though  twenty-two 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars'  worth,  in  gold,  were 
sold  from  the  depository  in  1866. 

The  home  missionary  work  is  largely  done 
by  the  personal  efforts  of  individuals,  who  go 
singly,  or  two  and  two,  from  each  community 


FRUITS.  243 

to  neighboring  villages,  especially  on  the  Sab- 
bath, to  read  the  Bible  and  explain  its  contents 
to  any  who  are  willing  to  hear.  At  times,  dur- 
ing the  winter,  persons  spend  days  and  wecivs 
in  thus  going  from  place  to  place  as  unpaid 
laborers  for  Christ,  except  as  the  Master  pays 
them  ;  and  it  is  chiefly  by  such  efforts  that  gos- 
pel light  has  been  so  generally  shed  abroad  in 
the  region  of  Harpoot.  At  one  time,  thirty-five 
members  of  the  city  community  thus  went 
abroad,  some  of  them  spending  weeks,  and  go- 
ing to  places  three  days'  journey  distant. 
When  asked  to  do  so,  we  furnish  a  horse  or 
donkey  for  such  persons  to  ride.  Harpoot  city 
church  has  furnished  twenty-four  men  for 
Christian  work  permanently,  of  whom  two  are 
Dastors,  five  licensed  preachers,  and  seven  stu- 
dents in  the  seminary  ;  three  have  died  in  the 
service,  and  the  rest  arc  employed  as  helpers 
and  teachers. 

The  women,  too,  do  their  part  as  they  are 
able.  One  woman  deserves  particular  mention. 
She  is  connected  with  a  circle  of  wealthy  friends 
in  the  city,  and  was  so  bitter  an  enemy  to  the 


244  TEN    YEARS    ON    THE    EUPHRATES. 

truth,  or  rather  the  delusions  of  the  Protestants, 
as  she  supposed,  that  she  threatened  to  burn 
her  husband's  Bible  if  he  brought  it  home  from 
his  place  of  business,  which  he  did  not  dare  to 
do.  He  came  begging  the  missionary  ladies  to 
call  upon  his  wife,  saying,  "  I  know  she  will  be 
pleased  with  the  honor  of  a  call  from  you,  and 
perhaps  you  can  persuade  her  to  learn  to  read." 
They  called,  and,  to  their  surprise,  she  con- 
sented to  have  a  favorite  teacher,  the  "  Union 
teacher,"  Garabed,  spoken  of  at  the  close  of 
chapter  seventh,  come  to  her  house  and  give 
her  lessons.  In  a  few  weeks  she  could  read 
intelligently,  and  the  scales  fell  from  her  eyes. 
She  at  once  took  up  the  cross  of  shame  and 
came  to  the  Protestant  chapel,  and  became  a 
Christian  before  her  husband,  who  is  the  man 
mentioned  in  chapter  third  as  desiring  a  cheap 
religion.  Though  in  feeble  health,  she  is  an 
earnest  and  very  efficient  laborer,  and  often 
goes  to  villages  from  three  to  ten  miles  distant 
to  hold  meetings  among  the  women,  whom  she 
has  remarkable  skill  and  success  in  persuading 
to  accept  the  truth. 


FRUITS.  ,245 

The  so-called  "  foreign  missionary  work,"  as 
undertaken,  is  to  be  done  in  the  central  por 
tions  of  Koordistan,  in  a  district  extending 
from  four  to  twenty  days'  journey  to  the  south- 
east from  Harpoot.  In  this  work  they  are 
united  with  the  churches  of  Diarbckir  and 
Mardin.  The  language  of  the  district  is  mostly 
Koormangie  Koordish,  which  none  of  the  peo- 
ple of  Harpoot,  and  but  a  few  of  those  of  Diar- 
bekir,  know.  In  tlie  autumn  of  186G,  it  was 
my  privilege,  with  Messrs.  Allen  and  Williams, 
and  some  members  of  the  "  Evangelical  Union," 
to  spend  a  month  in  touring  in  those  wild  re- 
gions, and  to  see  the  condition  of  deep  degrada- 
tion of  the  mingled  mass  of  Armenians,  Koords, 
Turks,  and  Yezidecs. 

The  way  in  which  the  churches  were  led  to 
undertake  this  work  was  strikingly  providential. 
Into  a  meeting  of  the  Union,  held  in  Diarbckir, 
strayed  a  young  man  who  knew  but  a  few 
words  of  Armenian,  but  the  pastor  of  the 
Harpoot  clmrch  was  born  and  had  lived  iij 
Koordistan,  and  knew  the  language  perfectly. 
The  young  man's  story,  as  given  to  him,  and 


246  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE    EUPHRATES. 

afterward  proved  to  bo  true,  was  that  a  man  in 
Redwaii,  some  four  days'  journey  to  the  east, 
had  given  liim  money  to  come  to  the  west  and 
find,  if  he  could,  the  men  who  teach  the  gospel, 
and  gain  a  knowledge  of  it,  and  return  and 
teach  his  countrymen. 

The  pastors  and  delegates  present  at  once 
decided  to  adopt  him  as  a  beneficiary  of  their 
churches.  The  American  churches  had,  tliey 
said,  sent  the  gospel  to  them,  and  it  was  their 
duty  to  give  it  to  these  perishing  ones.  Three 
other  men  were  found,  and  at  once  taken  tc 
Harpoot  to  be  educated  under  the  care  of  the 
city  pastor,  whose  early  knowledge  of  the  Koor- 
dish  was  thus  made  of  use.  As  a  result  of  his 
earnest  labors  in  teaching  them  Christian  doc- 
trine, the  four  were  hopefully  converted  during 
the  precious  revival  which  followed.  Never 
have  I  been  in  a  more  interesting  monthly 
concert  than  was  that  in  Harpoot,  when  these 
four  men  rose  in  turn,  and,  in  their  native 
Koordish,  translated  by  the  pastor,  told  of  their 
own  and  their  people's  wretclied  condition,  and 
begged   the   prayers   of    God's   people.      Two 


FRUITS.  247 

otluBrs  have  been  added  to  their  number,  and 
with  them,  and  the  wives  and  children  of  the 
married  ones,  and    a    few  other   persons  who 
know  the    Koordish,  a   meeting,  probably  the 
first  ever  held  in  that  tongue,  was  recently  held, 
in  which  not  only  the  prayers  and  the  remarks, 
but  also  the  Scripture  reading  and  the  hymns, 
were  in  Koordish,  the  last  having  been  trans- 
lated from  the  Armenian  by  one  of  their  num- 
ber, who  has  learned  enough  of  that  language 
to  do  it.     The  little  boys  of  Mr.  Walker's  con- 
gregation in   Diarbekir,  too   impatient  to  wait 
for  these  men  to  be  educated  to  go,  themselves 
selected  a  man,  put  their  pennies  together  to 
support  him,  and  sent  him  to  Redwan  to  preach 
the  gospel  to  the  Armenian,  Assyrian,  Turkish, 
and  Yezidee  population  of  that  wretched  town. 
I  anticipate  it  as  my  own  richest  source  of 
future  joy  in  the  missionary  work  to  learn  the 
Koordish  tongue,  and  lead  on  to  the  regions 
beyond  these  foreign  missionaries  of  the  newly* 
planted  churches. 


CHAPTER  X. 

TITHE-GIVING RE  VIVAL. 

Bring  ye  all  the  tithes  into  the  storehouse,  that  there  may  be  meat 
In  mine  house,  and  prove  me  now  herewith,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts, 
if  I  will  not  open  you  the  windows  of  heaven,  and  pour  you  out  a 
blessing,  that  there  shall  not  be  room  enough  to  receive  it. — Mal. 
iii.  10. 

HAVE  already  spoken,  in  chapter  third, 
of  the  obstacles  which  the  covetousness 
i^  of  the  people,  and  their  false  ideas  of  the 
missionary  work,  threw  in  the  way  of  ef- 
forts to  make  the  churches  self-supporting,  and 
of  our  unyielding  purpose  to  carry  on  the  cam- 
paign from  this  base,  accepting  no  man  as  a 
convert,  and  especially  no  one  as  a  helper  in 
the  missionary  work,  who  did  not  seem  to  ad- 
here to  Christ  instead  of  us,  and  to  be  ready  to 
make  effort  and  sacrifice  for  him.  .  A  single 
illustration  of  the  way  in  which  the  professed 
desire  of  a  community  for  the  gospel  was  some- 

248 


TITIIE-GI VING RE  VI VAL.  249 

times  tested  will  put  the  principle  in  a  clearer 
light.  Some  twelve  miles  south  from  Harpoot, 
but  in  full  view  of  the  city,  upon  the  face  of 
the  Taurus  range,  is  Hoh,  a  village  with  some 
eight  hundred  Armenian  and  eight  hundred 
Turkish  inhabitants. 

By  much  effort,  during  a  vacation  of  the 
seminary  some  years  ago,  we  succeeded  in  rent- 
ing a  room  and  locating  a  student  there  for  the 
winter.  The  only  apparent  result  of  his  fout 
months'  labor  was  a  softening  of  the  prejudices 
of  the  people,  teaching  a  few  persons  to  read, 
and  selling  a  few  copies  of  the  Scriptures.  The 
following  winter  we  did  not  occupy  the  place, 
but  those  copies  of  the  Scriptures  were  doing 
their  work,  and  the  succeeding  year  a  man 
came  to  ask  that  some  one  might  come  to  "  ex- 
plain the  Scriptures,  as  the  student  used  to 
do."  Accordingly,  for  several  successive  weeks, 
we  sent  a  student  on  Saturday  to  spend  the 
Sabbath  there,  and  return  on  Monday  to  his 
studies.  But,  as  they  left  him  to  pay  ten  cents 
each  time  for  his  donkey's  barley,  we  stopped 
his  going,  when  again  some  of  the  people  camo 


250  TEN    TEARS   ON   THE   EUPHRAiTES. 

to  inquire  why  their  preaclicr  didn't  come. 
"  You  Avish  him  to  come,"  said  we,  "  and  com- 
pel him  to  pay  for  his  donkey's  food  !  "  "  If 
that  is  all,  we  will  give  it,"  they  replied ;  and 
the  preacher  resumed  his  visits.  As  the  time 
for  the  student's  graduation  approaclied,  they 
ap])lied  to  have  him  come  and  remain  with 
them.  "  We  would  gladly  have  him  do  so," 
we  replied,  "  but  he  can  not  remain  in  the 
Afreet."  They  provided  a  room  at  their  own 
expense,  and  he  took  up  his  abode  with  them. 
A  few  weeks  later,  the  people  of  another  place 
came  for  a  preacher.  "  Tlierc  is  a  hungry  one 
in  Hoh,  whom  you  can  have,"  Ave  replied. 
They  went  to  call  him,  and  he  came  to  Har- 
poot  with  some  of  his  parishioners,  who  in- 
quired why  we  were  taking  away  their  preach- 
er. "  You  arc  sending  him  away,"  we  replied. 
To  their  surprised  inquiry,  "How?"  we  an- 
swered, "  You  have  starved  hini'  out.  Why 
don't  you  give  him  something  to  eat?"  We 
were  thinking  of  doing  it,"  they  replied,  "  and 
will  pay  him  twenty  piasters  (eighty  cents)  a 
month."     He  returned  with  them,  and  had  re- 


TITHE-  OiriNG REVIVAL.  251 

maincd  about  a  year,  wlien  lie  notified  as  that 
their  share  of  his  salary  was  two  months  in 
arrear,  and  that  they  said,  that,  owing  to  the 
absence  of  some  of  their  number,  they  could 
pay  only  two  hundred  instead  of  two  hundred 
and  forty  piasters  during  the  ensuing  year.  A 
brief  note  directing  him  to  come  to  Harpoot 
secured  the  prompt  payment  of  the  sum  due, 
and  the  promise  of  the  two  hundred  and  forty  pi- 
asters. Tliey  then  made  up  a  subscription  for 
two  thousand  piasters,  and  requested  from  us 
a  "  grant  in  aid  "  of  the  erection  of  a  chapel 
and  parsonage. 

Thus,  during  the  early  stages  of  the  work 
in  Iloh,  we  disciplined  them  to  honesty  and 
promptness  in  dealing  with  their  preacher. 
Might  not  some  parishes  in  this  land,  some,  too, 
of  which  single  members  could  buy  out  any  of 
our  oriental  communities  entire,  profitably  bo 
subjected  to  the  same  discipline  ? 

Thus  we  put  the  gospel  upon  its  own  merits 
with  its  professed  friends,  always  so  conducting 
as  to  make  them  feel  that  the  truth  is  sent  from 
God  to  them,  and  that,  if  they  receive  it,  they 

17 


252  TEN    YEARS    ON    THE    EUPHRATES. 

do  SO  for  themselves  and  their  children,  and 
not  for  the  missionaries  and  American  Chris- 
tians. 

But  it  remained  for  a  poor  blind  graduate  of 
the  seminary  to  strike  the  blow  which  bids  fair 
to  set  many  free  from  this  bondage  to  selfish- 
ness and  covetousness,  and  enrich  them  with 
the  blessing  which  God  bestows  on  the  cheerful 
giver.  This  young  man,  whose  name  is  IIo- 
liannes,  "  John,"  is  so  ready  in  quoting  Scrip- 
ture that  he  has  been  surnamed  Uamapapar, 
"  Concordance." 

In  the  north-western  section  of  our  mission- 
field,  near  the  city  of  Arabkir,  is  Shepik,  the 
villa<j:e  in  which  is  that  one  of  the  "  seven 
added  churches"  spoken  of  in  chapter  fourth, 
wliose  pastor  was  supported  by  missionary  funds. 
When,  soon  after  the  annexation  of  the  Arab- 
kir territory  to  our  field,  Mr.  Barnura  and  I 
went  to  visit  Shepik,  and  saw  the  deep  poverty 
of  the  people,  we  exclaimed,  "  No  wonder  that 
during  all  these  years  the  people  have  paid  but 
two  dollars  and  twenty  cents  to  their  pas- 
tor!    Ilci'c,  at  l;;ast,  is  one  [)erniaiicnlly  jiuuper 


TITHE-GIVING REVIVAL.  253 

cluu'ch."  We  raised  a  small  subscription  among 
the  people,  and,  resolving  not  to  support  tho 
churcli  with  tho  Board's  funds,  left  them  to  get 
aid  from  sister  cluirches,  in  which  thej  suc- 
ceeded. But  the  pastor,  who,  previous  to  his 
conversion,  had  been  one  of  that  incurably 
sluggish  and  covetous  race,  the  Armenian 
})ricsthood,  did  not  get  as  much  as  he  thought 
he  needed,  and  came  to  us  to  complain.  Wo 
referred  him  to  the  "Evangelical  Union,"  then 
in  session  ;  and  a  satisfaction  it  was  to  see  the 
faithful,  practical  way  in  which  they  examined 
into  the  case,  coming  at  last  to  the  decision 
that  his  own  want  of  energy  had  oeen  the  cause 
of  liis  people's  inactivity.  They  decided  that 
he  should  leave  them,  and  go  as  a  missionary 
to  a  village  near,  where  the  opposition  of  the 
people  would  wake  him  up,  and  that  "  John 
Concordance  "  should  take  his  place  for  a  time. 
Tlie  blind  preacher  went,  and,  to  the  com- 
plaints of  the  people  about  poor  crops  and  pov- 
erty, replied,  "  God  tells  you  the  reason,  in  the 
tliird  chapter  of  Malachi,  where  he  says,  '  Ye 
are  cursed  with  a  curse,  for  ye  have   robbed 


254  TEN    TEARS    OiV   THE   EUPHRATES. 

me.' "  Then,  taking  for  a  text,  "  Bring  ye  all 
the  tithes  into  the  storehouse,  that  there  may 
be  meat  in  mine  house,  and  prove  me  now 
herewith,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts,  if  I  will  not 
open  you  tlic  windows  of  heaven,  and  pour  you 
out  a  blessing,  that  there  shall  not  be  room 
enough  to  receive  it,"  he  began  to  preach  the 
duty  and  privilege  of  setting  apart  at  least  a 
tenth  of  their  earnings  for  God.  He  enforced 
the  duty  not  as  a  Mosaic  rule  of  action,  but  as 
something  enjoined  from  the  earliest  times,  and 
as  of  pre-eminently  binding  force  on  Christians. 
"  Did  not  even  Abraham  pay  tithes  ?  "  he  in- 
quired. "  And  if  the  Jews,  with  only  their 
own  home  work  to  care  for,  besides  expending 
so  much  for  sacrifices,  and  in  traveling  to  and 
from  the  temple,  were  obliged  to  pay  one-tenth 
to  the  Lord's  treasury.  Christians  surely  should 
do  no  less.  Does  not  Jesus  say  that  the  Phari- 
sees ought  not  to  '  leave  undone  '  the  tithing 
of  their  herbs  ?  And  does  not  the  apostle  say 
to  the  Corinthians,  '  Upon  the  first  day  of  the 
week  let  every  one  of  you  lay  by  him  in  store, 
as  God  has  prospered  him  '  ?  "     He  then  called 


TITHE-GIVING REVIVAL.  255 

to  mind  the  words  of  the  Lord  Jesus  which  the 
apostle  exhorted  the  Ephesians  to  remember, 
"  It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive." 
Going  on  still  further,  he  dwelt  upon  the  sin 
of  a  Christian's  sitting  still  and  waiting  for  tho 
collector  to  come  and  dun  him  for  the  amount 
due  the  Lord's  treasury.  "  Don't  you  see," 
said  he,  "  the  command  is,  Brinr/  ye  all  the 
tithes  ?  Why  not  bring  your  offerings  of  money 
to  God  as  much  as  those  of  prayer  and  praise?  " 
The  blind  man  had  seen  the  pith  of  the  mat- 
ter better  than  we  who  had  eyes,  and  his  fitly- 
chosen  words  produced  the  desired  result.  In- 
cluding the  family  of  the  absent  pastor,  there 
were  in  the  Protestant  community  eighty-two 
persons,  old  and  young,  of  whom,  including  the 
pastor  %nd  his  son,  sixteen  were  adult  males. 
But  of  these  sixteen,  two  were  wandering  in 
distant  parts,  one  was  a  blind  beggar,  and  one 
a  simpleton,  leaving,  besides  the  pastor  and  his 
son,  ten  adult  males,  six  of  whom,  with  ten  fe- 
males, were  members  of  the  church.  Most  of 
them  cultivate  the  soil,  the  owner  of  which  ex- 
acts lialf  of  the  crop  for  rent,  and  the  govern- 


256  TEN    YEARS   ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

ment    takes    a    tenth    of   the    remainder   for 
taxes.* 

They  all  gave  another  tenth  to  the  Lord's 
"  storehouse,"  a  room  which  they  set  apart  to 
receive  the  tithes.  Thitlier  they  bore  one-tenth 
of  all  which  came  to  their  hand,  he  who  went 
to  tlie  city  to  labor  for  twenty  cents  a  day 
bringing  two  for  the  Lord's  portion.  The  man 
who  caught  fish  from  the  neigliboring  stream 
sold  one  of  ten  for  the  Lord  ;  and  even  the 
blind  old  beggar  brought  a  tenth  of  his  gather- 
ings to  the  same  depository.  Enjoying  this 
so  much,  they  agreed  to  bring  another  tenth 
for  building  a  chapel,  and  promptly  paid  the 
amount.  But  "  John  Concordance's  "  Bible 
knowledge  failed  in  one  point.  It  was  no- 
where said  that  he  should  live  from  tlYC  tithes, 
and,  forgetting  to  class  himself  with  the  Jewisli 
consumers  of  titlies,  he  had  left  them  in  the 
"  storehouse,"  and  continued  to  receive  an  ad- 

*  No  one,  who  has  not  seen  oriental  poverty,  can  at  all  realize 
how  very  poor  these  people  were.  Most  of  the  houses  as  well  as 
lands  belong  to  tho  Turkish  owner ;  and  I  think  it  may  safely  be  said 
that  all  their  property,  including  clothes  and  household  utensils, 
Would  not  exceed  tnenty-live  hundred  dollars  in  value, 


TlTUE'Gl  VING RE  VIVAL.  257 

diiioiial  sum  from  the  people  for  his  own  support, 
aud  was  at  first  much  shocked  at  the  idea  that 
he  should  use  the  Lord's  portion.  Thus,  during 
the  year,  that  people  paid  in  all  one  hundred 
aud  ninety-three  dollars,  in  gold.  The  result 
was  that  they  recalled  their  pastor,  assuming 
his  entire  support,  and,  with  aid  from  us,  built 
a  chapel  and  school-room,  and  a  "  storehouse," 
in  which  to  deposit  the  Lord's  tithes.  Never 
have  I  seen  happier  men  than  they  seemed  to 
he  in  their  poverty,  self-denial,  and  liberality. 
In  reply  to  one  who  said  to  them,  "  Now,  of 
course,  you  are  satisfied ;  you  liave  paid  God 
his  tithes,  and  have  nothing  more  to  do,"  they 
replied,  "  Not  so,  indeed.  All  Ave  have  is  his, 
and  when  he  calls  for  all  we  must  give  it ;  but 
we  feel  that  now  he  calls  for  so  much." 

In  September,  1866,  the  Evangelical  Union 
held  a  meeting  in  the  city  of  Arabkir,  and, 
hearing  of  the  work  in  Shepik,  went  there  for 
a  day's  meeting.  To  our  surprise,  the  Arme- 
nians invited  us  to  hold  the  meetings  in  their 
church.  The  forenoon  session  of  four  hours 
was  spent  in  prayer,  and  discussing  the  ques- 


258  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

tion,  "  May  we  hope  to  sec  a  general  turning 
of  sinners  to  Christ ;  and  what  means  shall  wo 
use  to  secure  that  object  ?  " 

It  was  not  a  mere  discussion,  but  consider- 
able time  was  spent  in  prayer  and  singing,* 
and  the  Holy  Spirit  seemed  to  be  present,  fill- 
ing all  hearts  with  soractliing  of  the  revival 
spirit.  A  brief  slcetch  of  the  discussion  from 
notes  taken  at  tlie  time  may  not  be  uninterest- 
ing. I  give  it  much  condensed  ;  leaving  out  re- 
marks made  by  the  missionaries. 

The  President  of  the  Union,  the  Harpoot  pas- 
tor, began  by  saying,  —  We  may  not  only 
"  hope,"  but  be  certain,  that  a  revival  will  come 
if  we  seek  it;  and,  as  one  means  to  tliis  end, 
we  are  ourselves  to  be  awake,  and  to  labor  in 
earnest  to  turn  sinners  to  Christ. 

Preacher  from  Holt.  We  must,  by  our  own 
lives,  convince  sinners  that  there  is  a  differ- 
ence between  them  and  us.  We  must  pray  in 
secret,   and   in   our   preaching    put   ourselves 

*  Never  did  "  Sweet  hour  of  prayer"  sound  sweeter  than  in  thai 
A^rmenian  church  on  that  day. 


TITUE-GI VING RE  VI VAL.  259 

in  sympathy  with  the  hearers,  saying,  "  We, 
and  not  ^c." 

Hidakegh  Pastor.  Good  preaching  and  pray- 
ing and  good  living  will  turn  men  to  Clirist. 
We  must,  too,  tell  men  that  they  are  lost,  and 
put  the  Bible  into  their  hands. 

Husenik  Preacher.  Two  errors  prevail,  and 
keep  sinners  away  from  Christ.  Tliey  feel, 
(1.)  That  to  think  on  spiritual  things  is  only 
preachers'  business,  and,  (2.)  That  preacliers 
are  proud.  We  must  try  to  remove  these  im- 
pressions. 

Perclienj  Pastor.  We  must  preach  God's  jus- 
tice, to  awaken  sinners. 

Rarpoot  Pastor.  This  is  true.  We  must 
dwell  upon  special  truths  fitted  to  rouse  men. 

John  Concordance.  Men  confess  that  the  soul's 
salvation  is  a  groat  thing,  and  that  worldly 
things  are  nothing.     Let  us  enforce  this  idea. 

3Ialatia  Pastor.  We  must  dwell  much  on 
the  love  of  God  in  Clirist  Jesus.  The  Green- 
landers,  who  had  listened  unmoved  for  years 
to  other  tilings,  could  not  resis*  this. 

Perchenj   Pastor.    We  must  preach  on   tho 


2 GO  TEN    YEARS    ON    THE   EUPHRATES. 

worth  of  the  soul,  so  valuable  that  God's  Son 
died  to  save  it. 

3Iaden  Helper.  Men  need  to  feel  the  hate- 
fulness  of  sin,  and  dread  its  punishment.  Let 
us  talk  of  these,  trembling  ourselves. 

Palu  Preacher.  We  must  love  the  people,  and 
labor  in  private  with  them  personally. 

Harpoot  Pastor.  We  must  preach  practically, 
for  a  purpose,  asking  not.  What  shall  I  say  to 
fill  up  the  time  ?  but,  What  do  my  people  need, 
and  what  can  they  do  ?  We  must  give  cor- 
rect ideas  of  the  Christian  life  as  it  is,  and  not 
as  biographers  represent  it,  when  trying  to 
make  saints  of  their  subjects.*  We  must  preach 
practically,  experimentally,  feelingly,  trying  to 
live  as  we  preach. 

Mashldr  Pastor.  All  my  thouglitshave  been 
given  by  others,  except  that  we  try  to  show 

*  Would  i  t  not  be  well  for  writers  of  biographies  in  other  lands  to 
remember  this,  and  not  discourage  readers  by  making  all  their  sub- 
jects perfect  ?  In  reading  the  lives  of  departed  saints,  it  strengthens 
thereader  sometimes  in  Cliristian  purpose  to  know  that  they,  too, 
bad  human  waaknfesses  to  trouble  them,  as  well  as  we  poor  sinners 
who  yet  rema;  n  in  the  flesh. 


TITHE-GIVING REVIVAL.  261 

men  the  uncertainty  of  life  and  tlie  need  of 
preparation  for  death. 

A  Missionary.  How  solemn  the  responsibility 
resting  upon  us  all !  At  the  Judgment  it  will 
be  said,  "  Where  are  the  souls  I  committed  to 
you  ?  "  We  must  by  prayer  and  effort  lay  hold 
on  sinners  to  lead  them  to  Christ,  and  there 
will  be  a  revival.  You  pastors  must  not  look 
to  us,  but  to  Clirist,  and  pray  much  for  each 
other,  and  so  labor  as  to  save  your  people. 

Shepih  Pastor.  We  must  remember  God's 
words  by  Ezekicl,  "  His  blood  will  I  require  at 
their  hand."  I  confess  that  I  have  not  done 
my  duty. 

Harpoot  Pastor.  This  discussion  has  been  a 
useful  one.  Henceforth  let  us  labor  for  a  re- 
vival. 

The  afternoon  session  was  devoted  chiefly  to 
discussion  of  the  question,  "  Ought  the  churches 
henceforth  to  support  their  pastors  witliout  aid 
from  abroad  ?  "  Much  to  our  surprise  and 
gratification,  this  question,  after  a  lengtliy  dis- 
cussion, was  decided  unanimously  in  the  affirm- 


262  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

atlve,  and  then  the  means  of  securing  the  end 
considered. 

On  subsequent  days,  other  questions  were 
discussed,  e.g., — 

"  What  means  shall  we  use  to  keep  the 
churclies  pure  ?  "  "  Is  poverty  ever  a  reason 
for  leaving  the  ministry  ?  "  "  What  means 
shall  we  use  that  all  the  members  of  the 
churches  may  be  more  wakeful  and  spiritual 
men  ?  "     "  How  shall  we  win  men  ?  " 

After  a  full  discussion  of  the  question  of 
tithes,  the  following,  which  was  penned  by  the 
Harpoot  pastor,  was  unanimously  adopted  : 
"  Resolved,  that  we  exhort  our  people  to  give  a 
tenth  or  more  of  all  tlieir  earnings  for  the 
Lord's  work,  not  as  bound  by  the  Mosaic  law, 
but  from  the  duty  of  Cliristian  liberality,  and 
because  they  and  all  they  have  are  consecrated 
to  God,  and,  when  necessary,  they  are  to  give 
all  their  possessions  and  their  lives  also  for  his 
glory." 

I  have  already  spoken  of  the  fact  that  the 
pastors  and  preachers  set  tlie  example  to  their 
flocks  by  giving  a  tenth  of  their  own  salaries 


TITHE-GIVING liE  VI VAL.  2  63 

for  the  support  of  teachers  in  the  theological 
seminary 

From  that  meeting  we  all  returned  with  the 
purpose  to  preach  over  the  blind  man's  sermon 
till  others  should  imitate  the  people  of  Shepik. 

Among  the  communities  which  threatened 
to  be  most  difficult  to  bring  up  to  this  duty  was 
Hulakcgh,  of  which,  on  account  of  the  exces- 
sively niggardly  character  of  the  people,  I  once 
said,  "  I  know  of  one  people  that  will  never 
have  a  pastor.  They  are  too  mean  to  support 
one."  They  had,  however,  settled  a  pastor,  in 
1865,  and  were  then  paying  two-thirds  of  his 
salary.  Having  often  la])ored  in  past  days  to 
rouse  their  generosity,  I  got  an  invitation  from 
the  pastor  to  go  down  and  try  the  blind  man's 
sermon  on  his  people,  and,  if  possiljle,  to  per- 
suade them  to  support  him  entirely.  I  was 
able  to  preach  as  never  before  to  them,  and 
still  was  obliged  to  come  away  feeling  that  tlio 
point  was  not  gained.  Tlicy  would  not  set  a 
noble  example  to  the  other  churches.  The 
offci  to  "  l)eg  money  somewhere,  and  help  sup- 
port their  scliool  for  five  years,"  if  they  woulJ 


2G4  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

only  begin  at  once  to  support  their  pastor,  did 
not  rouse  them  to  the  strength  of  purpose  ta 
Kay,  "  We  will."  They  mot,  and  talked,  and 
prayed  over  the  matter ;  but  among  their  num- 
ber was  one  man  of  some  mcan^  who  could  not 
malvc  up  liis  mind  to  consecrate  his  tenth.  A 
young  student  in  the  seminary  being  present  in 
one  of  these  meetings,  and  seeing  this  man's 
course,  broke  out  with,  "  Brother,  it  seems  to 
me  that  only  those  who  are  afraid  God  will 
give  them  a  ffreat  deal  are  unwilling  to  return 
his  tenth ! " 

This  was  an  arrow  in  the  mark.  The  man, 
who  was  really  a  Christian,  exclaimed,  "  I 
see  it ! "  and  at  once  rose  and  began  to  pray, 
confessing,  "  0  God,  I  have  robbed  thee,  but 
will  do  so  no  more !  "  Each  of  the  others  pres- 
ent did  the  same,  each  man  making  his  sepa- 
rate covenant  witli  God  by  prayer. 

They  then  said  to  the  young  student,  "  When 
harvest  time  comes,  we  wish  you,  with  the  best 
singers  in  the  seminary,  to  come  down,  and 
we"ll  put  you  on  one  cart,  and  the   Lord's  por- 


Ti  THE-Girma  —  revival.  265 

tion  of  our  grain  on  others,  and  bear  it  with 
songs  of  joy  to  its  phice."  * 

Through  the  efforts  of  the  pastors  and  oth- 
ers, this    spirit  gradually  spread.     Two  other 
churches,  which  were  tlien  receiving  aid  from 
us,  began  to  care  for  themselves,  and  the  crisis 
of  the  conflict  with  the    covetousness  of   the 
churches  and  communities  seemed  to  be  passed. 
As  one  result  in  Harpoot  city,  the  office  of 
collector  to  go  from  man  to  man  and  dun  for 
the  pastor's  salary  was  abolished,  and  a  box, 
with  a  hole  in  the  cover,  and  tlie  keys  of  its 
two  locks  in  the  hands  of  two  men,  who,  to 
prevent  any  misappropriation   of   funds,  must 
open  it  together,  was  put  in  a  public  place,  and 
each  man  expected  to  do  his  tithe-giving,  as  he 
does  his  praying  in  secret,  from  the  fear  and 
love  of  God. 

It  was  deeply  interesting  to  see  the  effect 
produced  on  some  minds  by  this  action. 

*  The  regulations  for  collecting  the  government  tenths  compel  the 
people  to  retain  their  grain  on  the  threshihg-fioor  till  leave  is  given 
to  all  to  remove  and  store  it. 

Crops  thus  waiting  for  the  tithing-man  are  often  injured  or  do 
etioyed  hy  storms. 


26G  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE    EUPHRATES. 

Said  a  plain  man  one  day,  "  I  feci  that  this 
entering  into  partnership  with  God — he  fur- 
nishing the  capital  and  asking  ten  per  cent,  of 
the  gains  for  its  use  —  will  save  me  from  much 
temptation.  How  can  I  dare  to  cheat  now,  and 
put  dishonest  gains  into  his  treasury  ?  "  A  lit- 
tle girl  in  Maine  one  day  gave  me  two  cents 
for  missions,  saying,  "  I  have  scoured  them." 
This  tithe-giving  promises  to  clean  the  money 
wliich  goes  into  the  Lord's  treasury  in  eastern 
Turkey.  Would  it  not  be  well  if  all  Christians 
would  oftener  scour  their  money,  by  entering 
into  partnership  with  God  ?  Another  man,  be- 
ing present  at  a  meeting  in  which  some  pledged 
their  tenth,  went  away,  and  returned  the  fol- 
lowing week,  saying,  "  I  was  here  last  week, 
and  heard  you  talk,  and  I  said,  '  How  shall  I 
consecrate  ray  money  to  the  Lord,  when  I  have 
not  yet  given  him  my  heart  ? '  I  trust  I  have 
now  done  the  last,  and  wish  to  do  the  first. 
Please  put  down  my  name."  He  had  not  pre- 
viously been  known  as  a  Protestant,  if  indeed 
he  had  attended  the  chapel. 

Wo  now  began  to  see  the  connection  between 


TITHE-GIVING  —  RE  VIVAL.  267 

the  two  subjects  discussed  in  the  Shepilc  meet- 
ing. In  discussing  tliere  the  means  of  secur- 
ing a  revival,  no  one  had  thought  of  tithe-giv- 
ing ;  but  one  "  means,"  whose  use  God  blessed 
to  revive  his  own  people  and  turn  sinners  to 
Christ,  was  this  consecration  of  their  substance 
to  him.  According  to  his  promise,  he  opened, 
not  the  "windows  of  heaven,"  to  give  rain  and 
fruitful  harvests  till  there  was  not  "  room 
enougli  to  receive"  them,  —  though  he  has 
since  in  a  striking  way  bestowed  this  blessing 
on  some  of  the  tithe-givers,  —  but  the  windows 
of  his  spiritual  heavens,  to  pour  down  the  bles- 
sings of  his  grace. 

A  full  account  of  the  precious  revival  which 
followed  in  Harpoot  city  and  several  other 
places,  and  in  which  many  persons  were 
brouglit  to  Christ,  and  the  members  of  several 
of  the  churches  lifted  up  into  a  higher  plane  of 
spirituality,  would  fill  chapters  instead  of 
pages.  Tlie  first  decided  indications  of  the 
Spirit's  presence  were  in  a  meeting  of  the  Har- 
poot city  church  for  examining  candidates  for 
church-membership.  All  present  wept  together 

18 


2G8*  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE    EUPHRATES. 


over  tlioir  sins,  but  the  candidates  were  not  ex- 
amined, and  the  pastor  dismissed  the  meeting, 
saying,  "  I  leave  you  in  the  hands  of  the  Holy 
Spirit." 

Some  cases  of  conversion  were  deeply  inter- 
esting, and  some  of  awakening  and  failure  to 
find  true  peace  even  more  deeply  painful. 

Some  years  ago,  a  wealthy  young  man  named 
Sarkis,  a  man  of  intelligence,  and  who  had 
traveled  quite  extensively,  and,  in  his  travels, 
had  imbibed  the  principles  of  French  infidels, 
came  to  Harpoot,  and  went  into  partnership 
with  a  man  named  Mardiros,  who,  hearing  his 
partner's  infidel  sentiments,  said  to  him,  "  I 
am  no  Protestant ;  I  never  go  near  theiu  ;  but 
I  advise  you  to  go  to  them,  and  buy  and  read  a 
Bible,  and  be  cured  of  your  infidelity."  Sar- 
kis, who  was  a  lover  of  books,  followed  this  ad- 
vice. 

Meeting  the  Protestant  pastor  occasionally  in 
the  market-place,  he  gradually  became  inter- 
ested in  him,  after  a  while  began  to  call  upon 
him  at  his  house,  and  then  to  come  occasion- 
ally to  the  chapel,  where  at  last  he  was  a  con- 


TITHE-GIVING ItE  VI VAL.  269 

Btaiit  attendant.  As  the  pastor  was  one  day 
preaching  with  much  earnestness  and  power,  a 
sense  of  his  lost  condition  took  such  hold  of 
Sarkis  that  by  no  effort  could  he  throw  it  off. 
When  his  wife,  seeing  his  sadness,  asked  and 
he  told  her  the  cause,  slie  laughed  at  the  idea 
of  a  man's  feeling  so  sad  about  sins,  which  a 
priest  could  so  easily  pardon.  Wlien  he  re- 
quested her  to  go  and  call  the  pastor,  who 
lived  near,  she  pretended  to  do  so,  and  re- 
turned, saying,  "  He  says  he  will  not  come." 
Her  explanation  of  this  untruth  was,  "  He  tried 
to  deceive  me ;  why  sliould  not  I  pay  him 
in  his  own  coin  ?  "  Thus  cast  off  by  men,  as 
he  supposed,  Sarkis  opened  his  Bible  for  com- 
fort ;  but  his  eyes  fell  on  Matt.  xxi.  19,  "  Let 
no  fruit  grow  on  thee  henceforward  for  ever." 
"  I  am  that  cursed  fig-tree ! "  he  exclaimed, 
and  in  despair  closed  the  book.  He  saw  and 
conversed  with  the  pastor,  but  for  days  found 
no  peace. 

Among  the  new  converts  was  a  man  named 
Garabed,  one  whose  joy  and  zeal  to  lead  others 
to  Clirist  were  very  great.    One  day  the  pastor, 


270  TEN    YE  Alls    ON    THE    EUPHRATES. 

with  this  young  convert  and  Sarkis,  went  to 
call  upon  the  only  Unitarian   to  be  found  in 
Harpoot,  a  man  who  for  years  had  been  an  ear- 
nest Protestant,  and  a  liberal  supporter  of  the 
pastor,  and  whose  case  excited  much  sympathy, 
not  oply  among  Protestants,  but  among  the  Ar- 
menians also ;   even  Sarkis's  careless  wife  hav- 
ing pr\yed  God  to  enlighten  the  poor  Unitarian, 
who,  in  her  view,  had,  by  renouncing  Jesus  as 
his  Siviour,  turned  Turk.     The  pastor,  as  he 
afterv\  ards  said,  did  not  realize  what  he  was  do- 
ing, till,  with  that  young  convert  and  the  anx- 
ious sinner,  Sarkis,  he  found  himself  really  in 
the  house  of  the  Unitarian,  who  would  deny 
that  Saviour  whom  one  had  newly  found  and 
the  other  was  seeking.     He  then  tried  to  leave 
witho  it  talking,  but  Garabed  could  not  go  till 
he  had  said  one  word  for  his  Saviour,  to  which 
Avhen  the  Unitarian  replied,  Sarkis  took  up  the 
talk,  and  began  to  plead  the  cause  of  that  Re- 
deemer whom,  as  he  said,  he  would  himself 
gladly  find.     Suddenly  his  sad,  despairing  look 
departed,  and  he,  too,  began  to  tell  of  a  Saviour 
foui  d.     He  at  once  called  together  his  former 


TITHE-GIVING RE  VIVAL.  27 1 

associates,  the  chief  Armenians  of  the  ciiy,  and 
declared  his  changed  views  and  feelings,  ex- 
pecting to  be  ridiculed,  but,  instead,  all  heard 
with  much  seriousness,  and  one,  bursting  into 
tears,  begged  him  to  pray  for  him. 

His  and  his  partner's  chief  business  had  been 
lending  money  at  the  usurious  rates  which  pre- 
vail in  Turkey  ;  *  but,  feeling  that  he  could  no 
longer  pursue  such  business,  he  decided  to  leave 
it.  To  this  his  partner  agreed,  but  when,  with 
Zaccheus,  he  said,  "  I  must  restore  that  which 
I  have  wrongfully  taken,"  Mardiros  objected. 
"  Let  by-gones  be  by-gones  !  Why  should  he  be 
brought  into  reproach  by  his  partner's  repent- 
ance ?  "  Sarkis,  however,  was  inexorable.  Res- 
titution he  must  make,  even  if  thereby  reduced 
to  beggary.  The  uniform  influence  of  the  re- 
vival was  thus  to  lead  its  subjects  to  confess 
and  forsake  sin  and  make  restitution  to  those 
who  had  been  wronged. 

*  Worldly  men  in  Christian  lands  do  not  realize  how  much  the  gos- 
pel does  for  their  business.  Such  is  the  prevalent  distrust  of  each 
otlKT  among  nion  in  that  land  of  the  Koran,  and  the  Scriptures 
buried  in  an  unknown  tongue,  that,  while  the  legal  rate  of  interest  is 
twelve  per  cent.,  the  usual  rate  varies  from  twenty  to  one  hundred 
Vercent 


272  TEN    YEARS   ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

Mardiros  was  in  a  state  of  intense  excite- 
ment, and  one  day  used  such  language  t'lat  Sar- 
kis  replied,  "  If  you  talk  so,  you  must  leave  ray 
presence  ;  I  can  not  hear  my  God  blasphemed." 

Late  that  evening  a  person  came  to  me  say- 
ing, "  Do  come  quick  and  see  Mardiros !  They 
say  he  is  dying."  I  found  him  lying  upon  the 
floor,  groaning,  and  crying  out  in  great  agony, 
saying,  "  I  shall  die  !  I  shall  die  !  "  Seeing  at 
once  that  his  was  not  bodily  but  mental  agony, 
I  said  to  him,  "  You  are  not  dying.  Your 
soul  is  sick,  not  your  body."  He  then  confessed 
that  it  was  so,  told  me  of  his  blasphemy,  and 
asked  what  he  must  do  to  be  saved.  He  said 
lie  was  ready  to  do  anything  to  be  free  from  his 
load  of  sin.  I  pointed  out  the  way,  quoting  the 
invitations  of  the  gospel,  and,  in  closing,  re- 
ferred to  the  case  of  Sarkis,  and  inquired 
whether  he  was  willing  to  take  up  the  cross  as 
he  had  done.  "  I  am,"  he  said,  and  begged  me 
to  pray  with  him.  I  again  set  before  him  the 
nature  of  repentance  and  faith,  and  the  fruits 
which,  in  his  case,  they  must  bear,  telling  him 
it  would  be  far  better  not  to  vow  than  to  vow 


TITHE-GIVING  —  RE  VIVAL.  27B 

and  not  pay  ;  and  again  inquired  whether  he  was 
ready  to  take  up  his  cross  and  hear  it,  and  be 
known  as  a  Christian.  "I  am  ready  for  all," 
he  replied;  "do  pray  with  me."  I  did  so,  and 
he  exclaimed,  "  Amen !  I  say  amen  to  tluit 
prayer."  The  next  morning  he  appeared  in  our 
prayer-meeting,  and  it  was  generally  known 
that  "  Mardiros  too  had  become  a  Protestant." 
That  evening  Sarkis  came  to  me,  saying,  "  Mar- 
diros is  wavering.  Will  you  come  and  see  him  ?  " 
I  went,  and,  after  some  conversation,  he  in- 
quired Avhether  salvation  was  impossible  in  tlie 
Armenian  Church.  "  Yes,  for  you,"  I  replied, 
and  reminded  him  of  his  vow.  That  evening 
he  came  to  the  prayer-meeting,  but  the  next  day 
went  back  to  the  Armenian  church  and  his  old 
companions,  saying,  "  If  you  wish  perfect  peace 
of  conscience,  go  to  the  Protestant  meetings, 
and  get  convicted  of  your  sins,  and  then  come 
and  do  as  I  am  doing."  "  The  one  shall  bo 
taken  and  the  other  left."  '^  Therefore  hath  Ho 
mercy  on  whom  he  will  have  mercy,  and  whom 
he  will  he  hardeneth." 

Th-^  wretched  man  found  the  cross  too  heavy  ; 


274  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRAfES. 

and,  instead  of  calling  for  help  to  bcsar  it,  chose 
to  cast  it  away,  and  turn  asido  from  the  narrow 
way  to  go  in  one  of  his  own  choosing.  Eph- 
raim  is  joined  to  his  idols,  and,  at  his  wish,  God 
lets  him  alone. 

The  Unitarian  renounced  his  errors  of  the 
head,  and,  such  was  the  change,  supposed  he 
had  become  a  Christian,  but  was  kind^.y  assured 
of  his  mistake,  and  subsequently  apj- -cared  really 
to  have  met  with  a  change  of  heart. 

The  revival  had  three  characteri  itics  :  confi- 
dence in  the  efficacy  of  prayer  ;  al  horrence  of 
sin,  with  confession  and  restitution  ;  and  earnest 
desire  to  bring  others  to  the  Savioar.  Among 
its  subjects  were  persons  of  both  texes  and  all 
ages  and  conditions.  Some  very  interesting 
cases  of  conversion  were  those  of  quite  young 
children.  Some  "  feeble  "  Christians,  as  they 
called  themselves,  feeling  that  they  must  do 
something,  established  a  prayer-meeting  in  the 
city,  to  which  they  invited  the  most  wicked  and 
outcast  boys  and  young  men,  with  wliom  they 
prayed  and  sang,  each  one  telling  his  Christian 
experience  ;  after  which  they  called  on  the  ne.w- 


TITHE-GIVING REVIVAL.  275 

comers  to  tell  tlieir  feelings.  Several  were  thus 
brought  to  Christ.  All  the  Armenian  popula- 
tion of  the  city  was  moved  ;  and  they  too  estab- 
lished meetings  for  prayer,  which,  however,  we 
fear,  resulted  in  little,  if  any,  good.  Those  who 
were  in  earnest  in  seeking  salvation  —  those  who 
did  not,  like  the  wretched  Mardiros,  wish  to  es- 
cape the  cross  —  came  to  the  Protestant  chapel. 
And  blessed  prayer-meetings  indeed  did  we 
have,  in  the  city  and  other  places.  Formal 
praying  was  done  with,  and  men  —  and  women 
too,  in  the  female  prayer-meetings  —  seemed  to 
get  near  the  throne  of  grace,  and  express  defi- 
nite desires  in  a  definite  and  earnest  way. 

But,  among  all  the  meetings  which  it  was  my 
privilege  to  enjoy,  none  surpassed,  if  any  equaled 
in  interest,  those  in  Hooeli,  the  village  spoken 
of  in  the  last  part  of  chapter  fifth.  When  the 
report  came  that  a  revival  was  in  progress  there, 
our  weak  faith  could  hardly  credit  it.  Mr.  Bar- 
num  went,  and  returned  reporting  thirty  per- 
sons, some  of  them  apparently  the  most  hope- 
less cases  in  the  village,  as  hoping  they  had 
foMud  the  Saviour.     It  seemed  too  much  to  be- 


276  TEN    YEARS   ON   THE  EUPHRATES. 

lieve.  I  went  down  to  spend  three  days  there. 
The  winter  before,  when,  on  one  occasion,  the 
newly-erected  chapel  was  filled,  it  was  no  easy 
matter  to  keep  the  crowd  of  women  still  during 
service.  This  time  the  room, —  intended  to 
accommodate  less  than  three  hundred,  —  even 
with  oriental  packing  upon  the  pcwless  floor, 
was  crowded  to  overflowing  with  more  than 
four  hundred  ;  and  though  I  rose  from  a  sick- 
bed twice  in  those  three  days,  and  could  only 
speak  in  a  feoble  voice,  no  sound  nor  motion 
disturbed  the  meetings.  The  crowd  listened 
as  for  their  lives,  while  the  story  of  the  cross 
was  told.  Strong-willed  and  hard-hoarted  men, 
some  of  whom  had  in  past  days  ridiculed  Protes- 
tant prayer  and  put  our  helper  into  the  street, 
prayed  with  a  simplicity  and  fervor  which  told 
that  they  were  taught  by  the  Spirit.  When  at 
the  close  of  one  service  I  said,  "  Now  bring  my 
horse  ;  I  must  go  home  ;  I  am  sick  ;"  "  Oh,  do 
not !  "  said  they.  "  Do  stay  a  little  longer.  We 
will  pray  for  you  and  you  will  get  well ;"  and,  a 
man  at  each  arm,  they  assisted  me  up  a  ladder, 
and  over  the  roof,  to  a  neat  little  room,  one  of 


TITHE-  GI VING  —  REVIVAL.  277 

the  cnly  two  second-story  rooms  in  the  village, 
built  because  they  said,  "  Why  should  our 
missionaries  come  and  sleep  in  our  dark  and 
filthy  stables,  as  they  used  to  ?  "  And  then, 
with  a  comfortable  fire  of  wood  in  a  stove,*  and 
their  nicest  bed  to  rest  upon,  they  left  me,  say- 
ing to  the  crowd  who  followed,  "  Now  go  away, 
and  let  him  rest  and  get  well."  They  then 
held  a  prayer-meeting  by  themselves,  and  I  did 
indeed  get  well  for  the  next  meeting.  As  I  was 
about  to  leave,  saying,  "  Now  I  am  really  going 
home  ;  I  can  not  stop  longer,"  seven  aged  wid- 
ows, Avho  had  been  sitting  beneath  the  pulpit, 
inquired,  "  Can't  you  stop  just  a  moment  lon- 
ger and  teach  us  how  to  pray  ?  " 

But  I  must  hasten  to  the  close  of  the  Hooeli 
story.  Of  tlie  crowd  who  frequented  the  cliapel, 
between  forty  and  fifty  hopefully  found  the  Sav- 
iour, and  they  now  say,  "  We  ask  no  more  aid 
from  you.  Only  give  us  a  pastor,  and  we  will 
support  him  and  care  for  ourselves." 

But  i:ow  comes  the  time  of  trial.  With  their 
second  new  and  larger  and  finer  chapel   and 

•  lu  place  of  the  usual  dried  manure  in  an  '  ojak,"  or  lireplace. 


278  TEN    YEAnS    ON    THE   EUPIWATES. 

school-rooms  and  parsonage,*  like  some  commu- 
nities at  home  in  similar  circumstances,  they 
began  to  feel  that  they  must  liave  a  new  minis- 
ter. They  had  previously  begun  to  feel  that  tlie 
humble  and  earnest,  but  not  mighty  nor  elo- 
quent man,  whose  labors  God  had  so  blessed 
among  them,  "  would  do,"  as  they  said,  "to 
gather  in  tlie  lambs,  but  not  to  feed  the  sheep  ;" 
and,  in  ray  last  talk  to  the  senior  class  in  tlie 
theological  seminary,  setting  before  each  one 
his  own  special  need,  I  said  to  him,  "  Brother 
Garabed,  your  people  say  that  you  are  weak ; 
and  I  fear,  if  you  don't  study  liarder,  you'll  fail 
of  a  call ;  "  to  which  he  replied,  and  truly,  that 
he  had  devoted  too  much  time  to  other  tilings. 
The  result  feared  came,  and  they,  contrary  to 
the  advice  of  the  missionaries,  called  in  turn 
two  others,"  first-class"  men,  from  the  graduat- 
ing class  to  come  and  preach  to  them.  But 
both  chose  harder  fields,  one  going  to  Geghi 
Kasabah,  spoken  of  in  chapter  ninth. 

Meanwhile,  their  preacher,  whom  they  had  re- 
jected, was  called  to  go  to  another  place,  and  his 

*  See  chapter  fifth,  page  140. 


TITHE-GIVl^fG  —  REVIVAL.  279 

people  had  come  to  tlic  city  with  their  donkeys 
to  take  him  and  his  family  home.*  They  were 
quietly  sleeping  at  his  house,  preparatory  to 
starting  for  their  village  on  the  morrow,  when, 
at  midnight,  nine  of  the  principal  men  of 
Hooeli  roused  him  from  sleep,  and  began  to  bog 
his  pardon  for  treating  him  so,  saying,  "  Come, 
get  your  goods  ready  and  go  with  us."  The 
people,  seeing  their  failure  to  get  the  other 
preachers  whom  they  called,  took  it  as  God's 
rebuke  for  their  pride,  and,  having  met  to  pray, 
sent  these  nine  of  the  chief  men  to  ask  pardon 
of  Garabed  in  person,  while  others  wrote  letters 
asking  pardon  and  begging  him  to  come.  The 
parties  from  both  places  then  appealed  to  the 
missionaries,  who  declined  to  interfere,  advising 
them  to  pray  and  decide  among  themselves. 
Both  parties  agreed  to  accept  the  preacher's 
decision  as  God's  will,  and  he,  after  prayer  and 
reflection,  decided  to  return  to  his  old  people. 

Meanwhile,  twenty  of  the  women  of  Hooeli, 
impatient  at  the  delay,  met  also  for  prayer, 
and  with  difficulty  were  prevented  from  coming 

*  Uo  has  six  children  on  earth  and  six  in  heaven. 


280   ■  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHUATES. 

in  a  body  to  bring  tlio  delaying  proacher. 
"But  the  brethren,"  says  Mr.  Allen,  "kept 
them  back,  and  at  length  their  preacher  reached 
tlie  place,  and  no  preachei*  has  had  so  triuin- 
pliant  an  entrance  to  his  village  since  Harpoot 
Seminary  existed."  They  now  desire  that  a 
church  be  formed,  and  that  he  be  ordained  at 
once.  I  should  have  said  before  that  he  is  one 
of  the  "  home  missionaries"  who  first  came  to 
the  place  from  Perchenj,  as  mentioned  on  page 
138,  praying,  "  0  Lord !  give  us  open  doors 
and  hearts." 

Thus  He  who,  by  him,  began  and  has  carried 
on  the  work  in  that  hard  place,  has  disciplined 
both  people  and  preacher  for  their  prospective 
union  as  church  and  pastor,  and  prepared  both 
to  receive  and  do  yet  greater  good. 

I  can  not  close  this  chapter  without  speaking 
further  of  the  "  confidence  in  the  efiicacy  of 
prayer,"  which  was  spoken  of  as  a  trait  of  the 
revival. 

That  confidence  was  not  only  justified  by 
God's  promises,  but  encouraged  also  by  special 
aiiswers  to  prayer.     The  Unitarian  spoken  of 


TITHE-GIVING  —  liEVIFAL.  281 

renounced  his  errors  and  iudnlged  hope  in 
Christ,  apparently  in  answer  to  special  prayer. 
Among  the  nsual  congregation  at  tiie  Prot- 
estant chapel  in  Harpoot  was  one  man,  the  fa- 
ther of  the  yonng  man  Garabed,  spoken  of  at 
the  close  of  chapter  seventh.  The  mother  too 
was  a  Christian,  but  the  husband  seemed  to 
have  a  heart  steeled  against  all  religious  im- 
pressions, and  to  be  consumed  with  love  of  the 
world,  and  a  greedy  desire  for  more  money. 
He  was,  moreover,  a  perfect  Pharisee  in  self- 
righteousness,  and  his  conscience  was  so  seared 
that  neither  preaching  nor  the  personal  exhor- 
tations of  his  friends  made  any  impression  up- 
t)n  him..  His  son  and  his  wife  were  deeply  anx- 
ious about  him.  They  saw  others  coming  to 
Christ,  and  felt  that  the  father  and  husband 
must  not  be  left  out. 

In  this  state  of  mind,  the  wife  went  to  tho 
usual  weekly  female  prayer-meeting,  and  with 
tears  told  her  feeling  for  her  husband,  and  re- 
quested prayer  on  his  behalf. 

Soon  after,  he  went  to  bed  sick,  as  liis  family 
supposed,  who  wondered  that  ho  did  not  call 


282  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

the  pliysician.  Instead  of  doing  so,  he  called 
liis  son,  and  said  to  him,  ^  Garabed,  tell  me 
what  I  must  do  to  be  saved."  This  speedy  an- 
swer to  his  prayers  was  almost  too  much  for 
the  young  man,  and,  with  mingled  astonish- 
ment and  diffidence,  he  replied,  "  Father,  shall 
I  not  call  the  pastor  ?  "  "  No,"  replied  the  fa- 
ther, "  you  must  tell  me  yourself;  "  and  Gara- 
bed  pointed  his  anxious  parent  to  the  Lamb  of 
God,  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world  ; 
and,  at  the  next  prayer-meeting,  the  mother 
told  her  joy  that  her  husband  had  found  the 
Saviour.  When  asked  what  had  moved  him  to 
seek  the  salvation  of  his  soul,  he  replied,  "  I 
saw  tliat  all  my  family  were  going  to  heaven, 
and  I  was  on  the  way  to  eternal  death.'* 
Among  the  converts  had  been  a  son  of  his,  a 
little  boy  of  ten  years. 

But  Christians  not  only  learned  to  confide 
more  in  the  power  of  prayer ;  they  learned  also 
to  pray  as  never  before.  They  seemed  to  be 
specially  taught  by  the  Spirit. 

In  earlier  days  we  were  pained  by  the  for- 


TITHE-GIVING RE  VIVAL.  283 

mality  with  wliicli  even  those  who  seemed  to 
be  true  Christians  prayed. 

There  was  comparatively  little  of  that  stereo- 
typed praying  of  which  we  hear,  if  we  do  not 
at  times  hear  it,  here  at  home,  which  always 
begins  and  ends  at  the  same  spot,  and  is  quite 
sure  to  pass  through  or  over  a  formal  petition 
for  "  God's  ancient  covenant  people,  the  Jews  ;  " 
but  there  was  that  prolific  oriental  formality 
of  preface  and  appendix,  which  was  even  more 
tedious.  TliG  worshiper,  like  a  stranger  at  the 
court  of  heaven,  liad  a  painfully  minute  round 
of  introductoi-y  phrases  to  repeat  at  entering, 
and,  at  leaving,  bowed  himself  out  with  a  still 
more  prolix  round  of  formal,  high-sounding 
phrases,  whicli  made  every  hearer  pray  that 
that  man  might  either  know  the  way  better  to 
and  from  the  throne  of  grace,  and  feel  more  at 
home  there,  or  else  cease  trying  to  lead  others 
to  it.  But,  during  the  revival,  all  that  came 
to  an  end,  and  men  went  to  the  throne  of  grace 
with  an  earnestness  and  directness  of  purpose 
and  expression  which  told  that  they  had  some- 
tliiug  to  ask,  and  expected  to  get  it.     Seldom, 

19 


284  TEN    YEARS    ON    THE    EUPHRATES. 

indeed,  was  a  long  prayer  heard  ;  bnt  tlie  hour 
of  daily  pi-ayer  was  usually  filled  with  brief, 
pointed  petitions,  and  remarks  which  were  also 
to  the  point. 

In  earlier  times  we  had  with  difficulty  pre- 
vented a  continuance  of  the  habit  of  the  Arme- 
nians, of  going  dailij,  morning  and  evening,  to 
the  church  for  a  formal,  heartless  ceremony, 
and  succeeded  in  establishing  two  regular 
weekly  prayer-meetings  ;  but  when  the  revival 
began  during  the  week  of  prayer,  January,  18(37, 
all  felt,  and  we  with  them,  that  we  must  con- 
tinue to  meet  each  morning  and  evening  for 
prayer ;  and  we  did  so,  with  the  exception  of 
occasional  evenings,  when  tlie  public  meeting 
gave  place  to  personal  visits  for  conversation 
and  prayer  at  the  houses  of  Armenians  who  had 
not  attended.  In  this  way  some  of  them  were 
brought  to  the  meetings  and  to  Christ. 

It  is,  of  course,  difficult  to  number  the  real 
converts  during  those  weeks  of  revival ;  but 
our  hope  is  that  about  two  hundred  persons 
found  the  Saviour ;  while  an  even  greater 
amount  of  good  was  done  in  raising  Christians, 


TITnE-CririNG RE  VIVAL.  285 

including  the  missionaries,  to  a  higher  plane  of 
faith  and  feeling  and  action,  and  leading  us  to 
expect  and  labor  for  other  such  seasons.  The 
apparent  want  of  deep  spirituality  on  the  part 
of  converts,  especially  while  they  often  had  so 
much  of  a  certain  sort  of  religious  enthusiasm, 
had  begun  to  fill  us  with  painful  anxiety  ;  and, 
not  many  months  before  this  awakening,  ono 
of  our  number  remarked,  "  I  am  troubled  and 
alarmed  at  seeing  so  much  enthusiasm  and  so 
little  spirituality.  If,  with  such  a  head  of  steam 
on,  these  communities  get  on  the  wrong  track, 
as  they  arc  in  danger  of  doing,  nothing  but  the 
grace  of  God  can  save  the  cause  from  ruin." 

But,  thank  God,  his  grace  has  interposed, 
and,  as  we  hope,  rescued  many  souls  from 
death,  and  his  cause  from  present  disaster.  I 
need  not  say  that  we  all  feel  that  dangers  in. 
many  forms  still  lie  in  the  path,  dangers  from 
which  only  that  same  interposing  grace  can 
save. 

In  letters  received  from  my  associates,  no  re- 
quest is  oftencr  repeated  than  this,  — ''  Pray  for 
us,  and  ask  all  Cliristians  to  do  tl/c  same." 


CHAPTER  XI. 

J'O&ITION'   OF   THE    CHURCHES  AND   PASTOIiS. 

THE   PROSPECT. 

We  desire  that  every  one  of  you  do  show  the  same  diligence  to 
the  full  assurance  of  hope  unto  the  end.  —  IIeb.  vi.  11. 

§  SINGLE  question  remains  to  be  consid- 
ered :  With  what  spirit  are  the  churches 
and  their  pastors  entering  into  and  car- 
rying out  the  views  of  missionary  policy 
which  have  been  advanced  ?  It  has  already 
been  shown  that  at  first  they  were  acceptable 
to  neither  party.  Both  desired  to  be  "  iiide- 
-pendent "  of  missionary  control.  Even  hire- 
ling men,  whose  daily  bread  was  furnished  by 
the  missionaries,  have  been  known  to  issue  dec- 
larations of  independence. 

And  churches  and  communities  dislike  to  be 
in  any  way  crossed  in  their  plans.  A  commit- 
tee from  the  Harpoot  people  once  visited  us  to 

286 


POSlTION^  OF  THE  CHURCHES  AND  PASTORS.    287 

protest  against  our  interference,  and,  in  a 
word,  request  that  we  would  let  them  alone, 
and  mind  our  own  business.  Some  prominent 
men  did  not  wish  to  pay  their  share  of  the  ex- 
pense of  building  the  pastor's  house,  and  took 
this  means  to  save  their  money.  When,  after 
their  departure,  the  question  was  proposed 
to  us,  "  What  will  you  do  about  it  ?  "  the  reply 
was,  "  Have  another  committee  call  to  beg  par- 
don and  request  us  to  go  on."  And  so  it  hap- 
pened within  twenty-four  hours. 

It  was  only  necessary  to  say  to  the  assem- 
bled people,  "  You  have  reason  to  rebuke  us 
for  meddling  with  your  business.  We  have 
been  constantly  doing  it  from  the  first  day  till 
now,  supporting  your  preachers  and  teachers, 
and  helping  you  in  various  ways  without  ask- 
ing leave,  but  now  we  shall  jjrofit  by  your  re- 
buke, and  mind  our  own  business."  The  sec- 
ond committee  called,  and  the  work  of  collect- 
ing the  needed  money  became  easy.  But  now 
the  sta^e  of  feeling  is  very  different.  They 
feel  that  independence  and  self-support  go  togeth- 
er, and  desire  both,  and  enter,  with  more  self- 


288  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

m 

rcliancG  than  we  had  dared  to  hope,  into  the 
performance  of  tlieir  duties. 

We  had  our  fears,  and,  at  the  tune  of  their 
forming  the  "  Evangelical  Union,"  witli  an  eye 
to  future  possible  evils  needing  correction  1)/ 
our  hands,  had  with  some  difficulty  secured 
the  insertion  in  the  constitution  of  the  declara- 
tion, that  "  the  missionaries  have  still  the  rio-ht 
to  prosecute  their  special  work  independent- 
ly ; "  and  when,  in  the  autumn  of  1866,  wo 
saw  a  largo  body  of  pastors  and  delegates  as- 
sembled, some  of  whom,  as  we  knew,  disap- 
proved of  some  of  our  methods,  we  began 
rather  fearfully  to  query  whether  we  had  not 
been  in  too  much  haste  in  committing  the  af- 
fairs of  the  churches  into  their  hands.  Care- 
ful to  abstain  from  undue  inteference,  we  wait- 
ed, with  some  anxiety,  to  see  what  would  be 
done  with  the  crude  and  radical  propositions 
occasionally  made. 

To  our  joy,  we  found  that  increasing  light 
and  a  sense  of  increased  responsibility  had 
wrought  in  some  minds  a  wonderful  change  in 
the    right   direction.     One    man    was    present 


POSITION  OF  THE  CHURCHES  AND  PASTORS.    289 

who,  when  an  increased  ainount  of  the  pastor's 
salary  was  put  upon  the  Harpoot  church,  had 
angrily  inquired,  "  By  what  right  do  tlicse  men 
put  this  burden  on  the  poor  people  ?  "  But 
when  in  this  meeting  a  motion  was  made  to 
get  the  pastors'  salaries  from  other  sources 
than  their  churches,  this  same  man,  aided  by 
the  pastor  of  the  Arabkir  church,  so  showed 
the  folly  and  harm  of  the  proposal  that  its 
mover  dropped  it  in  shame. 

When  the  motion  had  been  made,  and  we 
were  anxiously  waiting  to  see  what  reception 
it  would  meet,  the  Arabkir  pastor  rose  and 
said,  "  This  is  to  enable  the  pastor  to  be  inde- 
pendent of  his  people,  and  to  say,  '  What  have 
you  given  me,  that  I  should  be  your  servant !  " 

The  force  of  this  pithy  argument  is  more 
felt  in  that  land,  where  the  ecclesiastics  rule 
and  devour  the  people,  and  where  this  tendency 
is  one  of  the  greatest  dangers  to  be  watched 
against  in  laying  the  foundations  of  the  church- 
es. He  then  went  on  to  show  that  it  would  bo 
for  the  good  of  tlie  churches  to  support  their 
pastors.     They  would  thus  love  anil  hood  them 


290  VEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

more.  This  ho  illustrated  by  his  own  recent 
sale  of  his  paternal  house,  one  timber  in  which 
had  been  inserted  at  his  own  expense.  ' '  While 
I  lived  in  the  house,"  said  ho,  "  my  eye,  on  en- 
tering, always  rested  first  on  the  spot  which  I 
had  repaired  ;  and,  when  I  sold  and  loft  it,  it 
cost  me  more  pain  to  part  with  that  one  timber 
than  with  all  the  rest,  which  had  cost  me  no 
expense  and  labor." 

Said  tlie  Harpoot  pastor,  "  Tlie  pastor  who 
should  get  support  from  any  source  outside  of 
his  own  people  would  not  be  midcr  their  con- 
trol." In  a  subsequent  discussion,  concerning 
the  support  of  the  poor,  he  said,  "  I  am  fully 
persuaded  that  every  church  which  is  worthy 
of  the  name  is  not  only  able  to  support  its  poor, 
but  its  pastor  too,  if  only  he  be  willing  to  live 
as  he  should,"  At  this  I  could  not  help  ex- 
claiming, "  Bless  the  Lord  for  that  word !  I 
would  not  have  dared  to  say  it,  but,  now  that 
it  is  said,  I  believe  it." 

An  extract  from  a  circular  letter,  addressed 
by  the  Harpoot  pastor  to  the  churches,  in  Dec. 
1866,  will  show  his  spirit. 


POSITION  OF  THE  CHURCHES  AND  PASTORS.    291 

Speaking  of  the  three  meetings  of  the  Evan- 
gelical Union  held  during  the  year,  and  of  tlio 
principal  subjects  discussed  in  them,  viz.,  in  the 
first,  the  "  purity  and  good  order  of  the  church- 
es ;"  in  the  second,  the  resolution  that  it  is  time 
for  the  churches  to  assume  the  entire  support 
of  their  pastors  ;  and  in  the  third,  the  resolution 
to  undertake  the  mission  to  Koordistan  ;  and 
referring  also  to  the  resolution,  passed  at  Shc- 
pik,  that  it  is  the  duty  of  all  Christians  to  con- 
secrate at  least  one-tenth  of  their  earnings  to 
the  Lord,  he  says,  "  We  have  made,  then,  all 
needed  decisions,  and  it  only  remains  to  put 
our  good  resolutions  in  force.  It  is  wise  to 
pass  good  resolutions,  but  only  in  keeping  them 
is  there  progress.  If  not  kept  they  do  harm 
rather  tlian  good."  He  then  goes  on  to  point 
out  the  means  of  putting  these  decisions  in 
force,  and  urges  the  churches  to  use  these 
means  at  once.  In  speaking  of  self-support,  he 
says,  "  Long  enougli  liave  we  received  aid  from 
others.  It  is  time  for  us  to  take  care  of  our- 
selves. We,  too,  sliould  be  good  men  and 
Christians.     How  long  shall  we  7'ema'm  in  8uh- 


292  TEn    YEARS    ON    THE    EUPHRATES. 

jection  to  the  beneficence  of  others  f  Wc  are 
to  be  grateful  for  benefits  received,  and  to 
strive  to  do  well.  As  Christians,  we  are  to  re- 
member the  words  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  how  he 
said,  '  It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  ti)  re- 
ceive.' Let  each  one  of  you  be  liberal-handed. 
Constantly  bring  willing  and  generous  offer- 
ings. Look  ever  to  him  who,  though  rich,  for 
your  sakes  became  poor.  Be  willing  for  his 
sake  also  to  become  poor.  You  can  not  serve 
two  masters.  Lay  up  your  treasure  in  heaven, 
that  your  hearts  may  be  there  also.  Let  your 
i:)astors  also  look  to  him  who  hnd  not  where  to 
lay  his  head.  If  you  do  these  things,  as  is 
your  duty,  the  decisions  of  that  second  meet- 
ing will  be  already  carried  out." 

In  speaking  of  tlie  Koordish  missionary  work, 
he  says,  "  Many  of  our  people  now  know  not 
the  greatness  of  the  work  which  you  arc  un- 
dertaking ;  but  in  a  little  while  they  will  know 
that  it  is  a  very  great  and  glorious  work,  and 
will  confess  that  you,  who,  as  Protestants,  were 
regarded  as  lost  from  our  nation,  have  rather 
foun  1  and  brouglit  back  those  who,  by  r<!asou 


POSITION  OF  THE  CUURCHES  AND  PASTORS     293 

of  their  language,  were  lost  from  it.*  As 
Christians,  reflect  that  the  one  chief  sig  i  of 
your  Christianity  is  your  making  known  to 
poor  sinners  the  Lord  Jesus  and  his  holy 
word."  Going  on  to  urge  them  to  Christian 
effort,  he  adds,  "  Esteem  it  a  great  favor  from 
God  that  he  gives  you  the  opportunity  and  the 
ability  to  do  such  a  work.  Try,  every  one  of 
you,  to  have  a  part  in  tliis  great  and  glorious 
work.  Let  the  poor  remember  the  poor  widow 
and  her  two  mites.  This  work  will  be  done  ! 
Our  Koordish-speaking  brethren  will  be  taught 
our  language,  and  to  read  it.  They  wall  read 
and  understand  the  Word  of  God.  By  his 
grace,  they  will  give  themselves  to  tlie  Lord 
Jesus.  And  those  who  amid  difficulties  labor 
for  them  now  will  hereafter  rejoice  and  be 
glad  ;  but  they  who  now,  through  carelessness^ 
or  want  of  faith,  have  no  sliaro  in  tliis  work, 
will  then  be  fdled  with  sorrow  and  shame. 
The  year  18(30  is  about  to  end.     May  the  Lord 

*  This  refers  to  the  fact  that  most  of  tlie  Armcn'ans  in  Koonlistan 
have,  by  centuries  of  subjection  to  the  Koords,  lost  their  national 
tongue,  Uie  Armenian,  and  speak  only  the  ICoordish. 


294  TEN    YEARS    ON    THE    EUPHRATES. 

give  you  a  happy  now  year,  that  you  may  pass 
it  in  earnestly  serving  him.  May  lie  giv&  you 
wisdom  and  grace  to  spend  your  short  lives  in 
doing  sucli  glorious  works. 

"  May  he  remove  far  from  you  covetousness 
and  want  of  faith.  May  lie  help  and  guide 
you,  that  you  may  be  able  to  do  such  works  as 
you  will  rejoice  over  in  the  liour  of  death,  at 
the  day  of  judgment,  and  tlirough  eternity." 

And  the  feeling  of  many  of  the  people  is 
similar  to  that  of  these  pastors. 

If  anybody  imagines  that  they  have  put 
away*  all  their  covetousness,  that  they  would 
not  accept  and  even  welcome  foreign  aid,  that 
they  would  prefer  to  support  their  own  pastors 
rather  than  to  have  some  ricli^  foreign  society 
do  it  for  them,  I  can  only  say,  "  Tliat  dreamer 
does  not  understand  human  nature,  and,  least 
of  all,  oriental  nature." 

There  are  not  a  few  communities  in  civilized, 
enlightened.  Christian  America,  that  are  not 
ashamed  to  get  from  the  Home  Missionary  So- 
ciety the  salary  of  a  pastor  whom,  if  they  would 
give  as  do  some  churclies  in  eastern  Turkey, 


THE    PROSPECT.  295 

they  could  support  five  times  over.  But  this 
we  can  say,  that  a  spirit  of  independent  Chris- 
tian manliness  is  in  process  of  development, 
which  promises  in  tlie  end  to  make  many  per- 
fect men  in  Christ  Jesus. 

But  our  greatest  satisfaction  is  not  in  seeing 
the  people  give  money.  This,  though  essential, 
they  might  do  from  other  than  really  Christian 
motives.  Many  of  the  most  liberal  givers  are 
not  apjjarently  renewed  men.  Theirs  is  some- 
times a  sort  of  religious  enthusiasm,  which, 
though  infinitely  better  than  sordid  meanness, 
is  not  piety.  What  pleases  us  most  is,  that, 
with  the  exception  of  a  majority  of  those  upon 
the  annexed  territory  already  spoken  of,*  most 
of  tlie  churches^ as  well  as  those  little  compa- 
nies of  believers,  now  nine  in  number,  in  the 
Ilarpoot  field,  wlio  are  lioi)ing  ere  long  to  be  or- 
ganized as  churches  —  appear  to  be  composed  of 
really  Christian  men  and  women,  who  desire  to 
know  and  do  tlioir  duty. 

One  pleasing  trait  of  character  is  their  child- 
like simplicity  of  faith  in  God's  word.     Once 

*  See  page  110. 


296  .  TEN    TFAnS    O.V   Tim    EUPHRATES. 

convince  them  that  tlie  Bible  teaches  a  thinj?, 
and  thej  uhesitatiiiglj  receive  it,  and,  if  it  be 
a  duty  enjoined,  endeavor  to  do  it.*  They  are 
as  careful  in  maintaining  secret,  family,  and  so- 
cial prayer  as  are  Christians  in  this  land,  and 
the  last  more  so.  Tliis  was  true  even  before 
the  precious  revival  spoken  of  in  chapter  tenth. 
During  that,  the  prayer-meetings  were  indeed 
soul-refreshing.  The  Sabbath  is  as  carefully 
and  conscientiously  kept  as  by  Christians  in  this 
land,  and  the  churches,  taking  counsel  not  of 

*  Take  as  an  example  of  this  the  man  mentioned  on  p.  266.  While 
speaking  of  the  spiritual  advantage  of  tithe-giving,  he  said,  "  Some 
of  us  have  boen  tliinking  that  our  wliole  duty  is  not  done  by.giving 
a  tenth  of  wliat  we  may  hereafter  earn.  Ought  we  not  to  restore  that 
of  which  wo  Iiave  '  robbed  '  God?  (Mai.  iii.  8.)  To  be  sure,  we  have 
not  gained  much  by  it.  I  have  only  my  small  house  left,  and  I  can 
not  spare  a  tenth  of  that,  neither  does  God  want  it.  But  we  have 
been  asking  whether  vro  ought  not  to  have  our  houses  appraised,  and 
pay  rent  on  God's  part." 

In  accordance  with  our  habit  of  not  deciding  such  questions  for 
them,  I  replied,  ''  Brother,  reflect  and  ijray  over  it,  and  you  will  be 
guided  to  a  correct  decision." 

I  confess  my  hope  that  he  decided  to  call  God's  tenth  of  his  house 
rent-free  for  his  family  altar,  and  my  wihh,  too,  that  all  who  profess 
to  serve  God  might  be  even  half  as  conscientious  as  this  humble 
man  so  recently  rescued  from  the  power  of  superstition.  Let  no  one 
take  so  rose-colored  a  view  as  to  suppose  that  all  or  oven  a  majority 
of  the  Christians  in  our  mission-neld  arc  like  this  man. 


THE  pnosPECT.  297 

us,  but  of  tliG  Bible  and  its  Author,  are  in  some 
cases  even  more  strict  than  perhaps  we  should 
be  in  disciplining  those  who  are  accused  of  des- 
ecrating it.  None  of  them  have  yet  learned 
that  a  half  day's  attendance  at  the  sanctuary 
will  suffice.  It  is  a  universal  feeling  that  all 
differences  between  members  must  be  settled 
before  coming  to  the  communion  table.  They 
are  generally  more  careful  in  receiving  mem- 
bers, maintaining  discipline,  and  using  all 
means  to  have  none  but  real  followers  of  Christ 
at  the  sacramental  table,  than  are  most  churches 
in  this  land. 

One  of  the  most  blessed  fruits  of  the  gospel 
is  seen  in  the  constant  increase  of  Cliristian 
feeling  and  action  in  the  family  circle,  making 
parents  and  children  dwell  together  in  mutual 
sympathy  and  affection,  parents  striving  to  bring 
up  the  children  in  the  fear  of  God,  and  children 
yielding  to  their  parents  due  reverence,  not 
from  fear,  as  was  once  the  case,  but  because 
they  are  th^ir  parents.  Perhaps  I  hardly  need 
say  that  the  almost  universal  oriental  habit  of 
lying  is  wholly  discountenanced  and  mostly  un- 


298  TEN    YEAnS    ON    THE    EUPHRATES. 

knowji  iutlie  cluirclics.  In  a  word,  Christianity 
is  doing  a  tliorough  work,  individually  and  so- 
cially, and  we  begin  to  see  the  dawn  of  a  better 
day  on  that  part  of  Turkey,  —  of  a  day  when  we 
may  leave  the  remaining  work  to  the  churches 
planted.  I  may  add  that  we  begin  to  see  day- 
light in  the  missionary  night  of  toil.  We  begin 
to  sec  how  the  time  will  come  when  there  shall 
no  longer  bo  a  call  for  missionaries  from  this 
land,  but  the  churches  planted  on  heathen  soil 
shall  complete  the  work  of  evangelizing  their 
own  and  kindred  nations.  Of  the  twelve  hun- 
dred cities  and  villages*  located  by  missionary 
exploration,  sixty-six  have  been  occupied  as 
missionary  out-stations,  and  we  propose  to  oc- 
cupy only  al)Out  one  hundred  and  ten  more,  and 
leave  the  remaining  work  to  the  churches. f 

For  the  whole  of  eastern  Turkey,  with  its 
hundred  and  seventy  thousand  square  miles  of 
territory  and  more  than  three  millions  of  people, 
we  desire,  in  all,  but  twelve  preaching,  and  one 

*  See  page  65. 

t  There  are  in  the  district  twenty-five  hundred  cities  and  villages, 
go  that  we  propose  to  occupy  but  one  in  fourteen. 


THE   PROSPECT.  299 

or  two  medical  missionaries.  The  latter,  like 
Dr.  West,  of  Sivas,  are  to  do,  in  the  medical 
department,  what  the  others  do  for  the  churches : 
while  aiding  in  other  mission  work,  and  espe- 
cially caring  for  the  missionary  families,  they  are 
to  train  and  put  into  the  work  native  physicians, 
whom  the  people  shall  learn  to  support,  by  first 
paying  the  missionary  physician  for  his  prac- 
tice. 

A  greater  economy  in  men  and  means  is  thus 
secured  than  is  possible  by  any  other  method 
We  are  not  planting  flowers  in  a  missionary 
vase,  to  be  watered  at  foreign  expense,  but 
trees  in  their  own  soil,  and  those,  too,  banyan 
trees,  whose  branches,  ever  dropping  new  shoots 
to  the  ground  to  take  root  and  form  new  stocks, 
shall  at  length  cover  all  the  land  with  their 
grateful  shade. 

It  was  with  these  views,  that,  at  their  annual 
meeting  in  1866,  the  members  of  the  Mission 
to  eastern  Turkey  unanimously  passed  the  fol- 
lowing — 

20 


300  TEN    YEARS   ON   THE   EUPIIUATES. 

EESOLUTIONS. 

1.  "  That  our  primary  duty  as  missionaries 
is  to  seek  the  establishment  of  living,  indepen- 
dent churches,  complete  from  the  first  in  liav- 
ing  pastors,  and  aiming  at  a  speedy  and  com- 

.  plete  independence  of  foreign  aid." 

2.  "  That,  to  secure  tliis  result,  we  need  to 
aid  in  the  establishment  of  merely  educational 
institutions  only  so  far  as,  among  ignorant  and 
degraded  communities,  they  are  essential  in  or- 
der to  enable  the  people  to  study  the  Bible." 

3.  "  That  we  witness  with  painful  solicitude 
the  adoption  of  a  different  policy  in  some  sec- 
tions, especially  in  giving  to  Protestant  commu- 
nities, for  consecutive  years,  a  gospel  so  entirely 
free  as  to  encourage  in  them  the  idea,  that,  in 
listening  to  it,  they  do  rather  than  receive  a 
favor,  thereby  hindering,  rather  than  helping 
on,  the  primary  objects  of  missionary  labor." 

No  one  who  has  read  the  story  of  Paul's  mis- 
sionary labors,  and  listened  to  his  rebuke  of  the 
foolish  Galatians,  who  liad  been  so  soon  "  be- 
witched "  to  turn  aside  to  another  gospel,  —  or 
who  hears  his  almost  despairing  lamentation, 


THE   PROSPECT.  301 

*'  No  mau  stood  Avith  me  ; "  "  All  they  which  are 
in  Asia  be  turned  away  from  me  ;  "  can  for  a 
moment  suppose  that  wo  anticipate  unin- 
terrupted success.  Wc  liave  not  had  it  thus  far, 
and,  if  the  fact  has  not  been  put  in  a  strong 
light,  it  is  because,  in  loolcing  back  over  these 
ten  years  of  missionary  life,  my  mind  has  not 
loved  to  dwell  upon  t!ie  days  of  darkness,  when 
the  ingratitude  and  the  inconstancy  of  even 
those  who  appeared  to  be  real  Christians  has 
made  us  feel  and  say,  "  Were  not  we  here  by 
Christ's  command,  we  could  not  remain  among 
such  a  people." 

We  are  grateful  now  that  so  many  arc  doing 
so  well,  and  especially  do  wo  rejoice  in  having, 
in  the  native  ministry,  such  efficient  helpers  even 
in  that  special  work  which  is  committed  to  us. 
I  do  not  believe  that,  taken  as  a  whole,  a  more 
earnest,  noble,  self-denying,  humble,  in  a  word, 
a  more  Christian  band  of  workers  for  the  Mas- 
ter, is  found  anywhere,  than  are  those  native 
pastors  and  preachers  with  whom  it  is  our 
privilege  to  labor.  And  one  of  our  greatest 
sources  of  encouragement  is  the  present  atfec- 


302  TEN    YEARS    O.N   THE   EUPHRATES. 

i 

tionate  union  of  feeling  and  action  between 
tliera  and  us.  Yet  the  time  may  come  when 
they,  nice  Diotrephcs,  shall  refuse  to  receive  us, 
and  even  seek  to  imbitter  the  minds  of  their 
churches  against  us. 

If  that  hour  come,  and  come  soon,  we  shall 
try  to  meet  it  as  Christian  men  should,  and  in 
no  case  to  feel  that  such  disaffection  from  us 
proves  that  the  churches  are  not  vines  of  the 
Master's  planting.  They  may  even  turn  away 
from  the  faith  ;  but,  till  that  hour  come,  we  will 
hope  better  things,  and  things  that  accompany 
•salvation. 

We  hope,  —  we  believe,  —  that  the  good  work 
which  the  Lord  has  begun  will  go  on  and  in- 
crease  till  all  the  land  be  pervaded  with  its  in- 
fluence. Cliicfly  as  a  result  of  the  precious 
revival  in  the  winter  of  1866-67,  two  churches 
were  formed  in  1867,  and  another  is  about  to 
be  formed ;  and  our  hope  is  that  in  coming 
years  yet  richer  pentecostal  blessings  will  bring 
into  life  churches  of  Christ  in  scores  of  villages. 

Among  the  eighteen  hundred  people,  includ- 
ing over  two  hundred  hopeful  Christians,  who 


THE   PROSPECT.  303 

met  to  woi'sliip  outside  the  cliapcl  walls  on  Har- 
poot  hill,  April,  1867,  were  some  who  had 
come  three,  four,  and  five  days'  journey  to  be 
present  on  that  "  high  day,"  There  were  rep- 
resentatives from  two-score  cities  and  villages, 
in  some  of  which  arc  already  independent 
churches,  and  in  all  of  which  Christian  work 
has  made  more  or  less  progress,  and  will,  as 
we  hope,  ere  the  lapse  of  another  ten  years,  be 
completed,  so  far  as  it  is  our  duty  to  do  it. 

It,  is  said  that  the  ledge  on  which  a  cele- 
brated light-house  is  built  was  uncovered  but 
twenty  minutes  at  low  water,  and  required  two 
years  to  prepare  its  surface  to  receive  the  foun- 
dation-stones. Tliis  work  done,  five  years 
more  were  consumed  in  the  wearisome  labor  of 
laying  the  first  few  courses  ;  but,  this  over,  a 
single  year  sufficed  to  carry  the  structure  to 
completion,  to  begin  its  century  work  of  point- 
ing benighted  and  tempest-tossed  mariners  to 
the  harbor  of  safety. 

Seven  years  and  more  did  we  labor  before 
the  foundations  were  prepared  for  the  first 
Christian  clmrch  to  be  fixed  in  its  place  as  a 


304  TEIf    YEAns    OjST   the   EUPHRATES. 

corner-stone  in  the  spiritual  temple  t)  be 
erected ;  but,  now  that  the  preparatory  founda- 
tion work  has  been  done,  and  the  task  of  erec- 
tion commenced,  our  hope  is  that  the  subse- 
quent labor  will  go  on  with  ever-increasing 
rapidity  to  its  completion. 

That  it  is  the  purpose  of  Him  who  has  begun 
this  good  work  to  carry  it  on  to  completion,  we 
can  not  doubt. 

Sometimes,  in  early  spring,  the  morning 
light  shows  the  plain  of  Harpoot  covered  with 
a  dense  fog,  the  deposit  of  the  past  night's 
darkness  and  chill,  whicli  seems  a  vast  leaden 
sea,  its  farther  shores  the  distant  moun- 
tains. But  by  and  by  the  sun  rises,  and,  at 
first  agitating  the  outspread  mass,  and  here 
and  there  revealing  an  outcropping  hill,  at 
length  lifts  and  dispels  it  all,  or  pours  it  over 
the  Taurus  to  be  dissipated  by  more  southern 
heats;  and  the  populous  plain,  in  its  vernal 
bloom  and  beauty,  lies  outspread  before  us. 

A  deeper,  deadlier  mist  of  superstition  and 
sin,  the  deposit  of  a  longer  night  of  spiritual 
darkness,  has   covered  its   people,  and,  rising 


THE   PROSPECT. 


305 


higher,  buried  all  the  land  beneath  its  chilling 
weight  of  death.  But  already  has  the  Sun  of 
Righteousness  arisen,  and  here  and  there  out- 
springing  forms  of  spiritual  life  and  beauty,  in 
living  Christian  churches,  tell  that  He  too  shall 
at  length  dissipate  all  the  deadly  gloom,  and 
pour  his  own  light  and  life  in  upon  tlie  dark- 
ened populations  so  long  buried  beneath  it. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE   FOUR    WANTS. 
Come  over and  help  us.  —  Acts  xvi.  9. 

^OME   must   come,  others   help  those  who 
come.     All  must  in  some  way  help  on  the 
missionary  work,   that   work   which    the 
church  is  specially  commissioned  to  do. 
Let  us  first  inquire  how  those  who  remain  at 
home,  how  the  vast  majority  of  those  who  have 
the  gospel,  are  to  aid  in  giving  it  to  the  perish- 
ing.    Or,  to  put  the  question  in  another  form, 
How  are  those  who  stay  to  help  those  who  go  ? 
To  one  fresh  from  the  foreign  mission-field, 
nothing  connected  with  the  work  causes  more 
surprise  and  pain  than  the  ignorance  of  the  great  ^ 
mass  of  professedly  Cliristian  people  upon  mis- 
sionary matters.     Many  persons,  who  at  times 
manifest  an  almost  romantic  interest  in  mis- 

306 


THE   FOUR    WANTS.  307 

sionaries,  seem  to  know  as  little  about  their 
work,  and  about  the  condition  and  wants  of  the 
heathen  world,  as  if  the  missionaries  and  the 
lieathen  were  inhabitants  of  another  planet. 
There  are  some,  perhaps  many,  exceptions  ;  men 
and  women  who  follow  the  laborers  to  their 
fields,  and  can  tell  something  of  the  work,  of 
the  hindrances  to  its  progress,  and  of  the  char- 
acter of  its  successes ;  who  know,  in  short,  all 
which  persons  at  home  could  be  expected  to 
know  of  a  distant  people  and  work,  and  who, 
as  a  result  of  tliis  knowledge,  feel  and  manifest 
a  deep  interest  in  the  cause.  But  the  majority 
show  clearly,  that,  except  as  now  and  then  a 
missionary  address  or  some  special  article  in  a 
newspaper  calls  attention  to  the  missionary 
work,  they  use  no  means  to  inform  themselves 
upon  it.  The  fact  that  so  lamentably  small  an 
edition  of  the  Missionary  Herald  and  other 
missionary  publications  is  called  for,  and  that  of 
these  so  many  go  to  fill  the  waste-basket,  shows 
that  the  idea  of  keeping  themselves  well  in- 
formed on  such  matters  has  lodged  itself  in 
comparatively  few  minds. 


308  TEN    YEARS   ON  THE   EUPHRATES. 

Now,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  persons 
can  not  feel  an  efficient  interest  in  a  subject  of 
which  they  are  so  ignorant.  In  earlier  days, 
before  the  press  of  other  benevolent  interests 
came  in  to  engross  attention,  the  monthly  con- 
cert, with  its  regular  su}  ply  of  missionary 
news,  kept  alive  a  very  general  interest  in  the 
subject  of  missions ;  but  those  days  are  past, 
and  other  causes  now  divide  the  time  and  inter- 
est of  the  concert  of  prayer  with  that  of  for- 
eign missions,  and  often  take  the  lion's  share  ; 
while,  in  a  large  minority,  if  not  a  majority  of 
the  churches,  such  a  thing  as  a  concert  of 
prayer  for  missions  is  unknown,  or,  if  sus- 
tained, is  a  thinly-attended  and  lifeless  meet- 
ing. In  this  state  of  things,  it  is  not  surpris- 
ing that  so  many  Christians  and  churches  man- 
ifest so  little  practical  interest  in  the  mission- 
ary work.  How  can  a  person  manifest  an  un 
felt  interest,  and  how  feel  an  interest  in  a  work 
of  whicli  he  knows  little  or  nothing  ? 

The  first  way,  then,  in  whicli  the  friends  of 
the  missionary  work  are  to  help  it  on,  is  to  in- 
form themselves,  and  endeavor  to  infirm  oth- 


THE   FOUR    WANTS.  309 

crs,  of  its  character  and  demands.  If,  as  one 
way  of  doing  this,  every  subscriber  for  the 
Herald,  and  other  missionary  publications,  and 
each  reader  of  them,  would  endeavor  to  add 
one  or  more  to  the  list  of  subscribers  and  read- 
ers, a  great  and  good  work  would  be  done. 

"  Help  us,"  then,  by  following  the  missioii- 
aries  with  an  intelligent  scrutiny,  inquiring 
whether  we  are  really  doing  the  work  you,  or 
rather  the  Master,  sent  us  to  do. 

A  second  way  of  helping  is  by  prayer.  This 
is  no  place  to  dwell  upon  the  power  of  prayer 
as  a  missionary  agency.  All  praying  persons, 
at  least,  confess  that  power,  and  all  must  con- 
fess that  the  failure  of  the  church  at  large  to 
use  it  is  one  of  the  crying  sins  of  this  pro- 
fessedly missionary  age. 

From  the  want  of  accompanying  prayer  to 
make  it  efficient  for  good,  much  of  the  money 
that  is  given  fails  to  carry  a  blessing  with  it. 
The  feeling  is  too  common  that  the  duty  of 
praying  for  those  who  sit  in  darkness  is  to  bo 
discharged  regularly,  once  a  month,  by  those 
present  as  substitutes  for  the  bcdy  of  the  church 


310  TEN    YE. I  US    O.V    TITE   EUPHRATES. 

ill  the  monthly  concert ;  or  that  the  petition  for 
the  heathen  is  to  keep  company  with  tliat 
formal  one  for  God's  •'  ancient  covenant  people, 
the  Jews,"  so  often  used  by  some  to  round  a 
devotional  sentence.  The  great  majority  of 
Christ's  professed  people,  even  in  Christian 
America,  do  not  pray  as  they  should  for  the 
missionary  work,  eitlier  at  home  or  abroad. 
It  is  too  often  forgotten  that  even  the  promised 
enlargement  of  the  chnrcli  is  to  come  only  in 
answer  to  the  prayers  of  God's  people.  At 
the  close  of  a  chapter  rich  in  promised  bless- 
ings to  his  church,  God  says  to  the  prophet 
Ezekiel,  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord  God,  I  will  yet 
for  this  be  inquired  of  by  the  house  of  Israel 
to  do  it  for  them ;  I  will  increase  them  with 
men  like  a  flock." 

It  is  a  fact  full  of  blessing  to  the  cause,  that 
here  and  there  is  found  a  praying  father  or 
mother  in  Israel,  tlie  burden  of  whose  daily  se- 
cret petitions  is  that  the  Lord  of  the  harvest 
will  send  forth  laborers  into  his  harvest,  and 
guide    and   bless   them   in  doing  his   harvest- 


THE   FOUR    WANTS.  311 

work.*  "Would  that  their  number  were  in- 
creased a  thousand-fold !  The  glad  day  of 
promise  would  then  soon  come,  when  Christ 
shall  have  the  heathen  for  his  inheritance,  and 
the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  for  his  posses- 
sion. 

With  these  two  agencies  for  helping  on  the 
missionary  work  efficiently  used,  with  the  pro- 
fessed friends  of  Christ  intelligently  prayerful 
for  the  coming  of  that  day,  the  third  agency,  of- 
ferings of  money  by  the  people,  would  not  be  so 
difficult  to  obtain  as  they  now  are,  requiring 
unceasing  effi)rts  ou  the  part  of  those  placed 
iu  control  of  the  pecuniary  department,  and  at 
times  causing  no  little  anxiety  lest  the  nig- 
gardly contributions  of  so  many  professed 
friends  of  Christ,  and  the  utter  neglect  of  oth- 
ers to  give  at  all,  should  bring  disaster  upon 
the  cause. 

*  Said  an  aged  "  mother  in  Israel  "  to  me,  some  weeks  since,  "  Sir,  I 
read  the  Missionary  Herald  through,  and  whenever  any  special  re- 
quest for  i)rayer  is  made,  I  note  it  on  the  prayer-list  in  my  closet  to 
be  remembered  daily."  The  memory  of  that  "  prayer-list  "  will  be 
ever  fresh  and  pleasant,  and  often  give  cheer  when  the  thought  of 
the  thousands  wliu  know  lillh;  and  care  'ess  fc  r  "  foreign  missions" 
Would  sudden  llic  bruit. 


31 '2  TEN    YEARS   ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

It  is  a  fact  too  evident  to  be  doubted,  that 
vast  numbers  of  the  professed  followers  of 
Christ  —  it  is  to  be  feared  a  majority  of  those 
whose  names  are  enrolled  in  the  church  books 
—  are  living  for  themselves,  and  not  for  Hira 
who  bought  them.  They  first  supply  all  their 
own  wants,  and  then,  if  anything  is  left,  bestow 
it  in  "charity"  upon  the  benevolent  causes 
which  arc  presented  and  urged  upon  them 
sufficiently  to  secure  a  miserable  pittance,  just 
enough  to  silence  the  claims  of  conscience,  or 
get  rid  of  the  collector. 

How  the  spirit  of  Him  who  said,  "  Freely  ye 
have  received,  freely  give,"  entering  into  these 
shriveled,  selfish  souls,  would  expand  and  enno- 
ble them ! 

And  if  they  are  indeed  Christ's,  if  they  have 
perchance  a  spark  of  love  for  him  in  their 
hearts,  the  best  way  to  kindle  it  to  a  flame  is  to 
set  them  at  work,  thinking  of  and  praying  for  the 
darkened  millions  for  whom  he  died,  but  who, 
largely  through  their  neglect  and  covetousness, 
are  perishing  in  darkness  and  sin. 

All  the  "  help  "  needed  for  the  missionary 


THE   FOUR    WANTS.  313 

causo  might  indeed  be  summed  up  by  saying, 
that,  to  advance  that  cause,  whether  at  home 
or  abroad,  those  who  profess  to  love  Christ 
must  have  his  spirit.  That  which  really  helps 
the  cause  in  one  place  tends  to  help  it  as  a 
whole.  He  who  truly  loves  Christian  work  in 
one  place  loves  it  in  all  places.  There  is  no 
ground  for  the  distinction  made  by  some,  who 
talk  of  feeling  an  interest  in  home  missions,  but 
".one  in  foreign.  Such  a  professed  interest  in 
die  "  home  work,"  when  examined,  is  usually 
found  to  mean  "  no  interest  at  all  in  any  C>".ris- 
tian  work."  There  is  a  vast  deal  of  sleeping- 
car  religion  of  men  who  seem  to  suppose  they 
have  a  free  pass  to  heaven,  who  present  them- 
selves regularly  at  the  religious  services  of  the 
Sabbath,  and  who  say  to  their  souls,  as  they 
leave  the  house  of  God,  "  Soul,  thou  hast 
much  righteousness  laid  up  for  the  ensuing 
week ;  take  thine  case,  eat,  drink,  and  be  mer- 
ry, as  the  world  does,  till  the  coming  Sabbath." 
Such  persons  need  first  conversion  to  Christ, 
and  then  to  the  cause  of  missions ;  and  what 
the  churches  need  is,  that  all  those  who  aro  en- 


314  TEN    TEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

rolled  ill  their  books  become  living,  effective 
members,  walking  with  Christ  and  working  for 
him.  When  this  is  done,  the  wants  of  the 
missionary  work  will  be  all  supplied. 

The  fourth  and  last  want  is  more  missionaries. 
And  here  a  few  words  in  regard  to  the  kind  of 
men  needed.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  misap- 
prehension on  this  point,  even  on  the  part  of 
some  who  attempt  to  direct  others,  which,  if 
shared  by  the  candidates  for  the  foreign  field, 
would  keep  some  at  home  who  ought  to  go 
abroad,  and  send  some  abroad  who  ought  to 
stay  at  home. 

A  prominent  newspaper,  not  long  since,  gave 
remarkable  linguistic  power  as  one  quality  neces- 
sary to  a  missionary,  setting  forth  tlie  imaginary 
necessity  laid  upon  the  poor  polyglot  to  use 
many  languages,  and,  in  so  doing,  painted  that 
one  man  needed,  among  scores  of  preaching  mis- 
sionaries, who  is  to  do  the  work  of  a  Dr.  Riggs, 
in  giving  to  different  nations  the  Bible  in  their 
own  tongue.  Very  few  missionaries  are  able 
to  preach  in  more  than  one  tongue ;  and  the 
man  who  can  nse  his  native  tongue  correctly 


TUE   FOUR    WANTS.  315 

and  easily  can,  iu  all  ordinary  circumstan- 
ces, acquire  another  in  which  to  preach  in  a 
foreign  field.  No  halting,  stumbling,  stutter- 
ing speaker,  surely,  —  no  man  who  can  not  ex- 
press his  ideas  clearly  and  intelligibly  in  his 
native  tongue,  —  should  go  abroad  ;  but  if  one 
fitted  for  the  work  in  other  respects  has  the 
gift  of  utterance  at  home,  let  no  polyglot  ghost 
fiighten  him  from  going  abroad. 

The  first  few  days  in  the  country  will  ordi- 
narily give  a  man  tongue  enough  to  begin  to 
do  good  by  winning  the  hearts  of  the  people 
by  saying  "  Good-morning,"  "  Good-evening," 
if  no  more ;  and,  in  eastern  Turkey,  less  than 
a  year  iisually  suffices  to  enable  one  to  begin  to 
preach  written  if  not  cxtomporc  sermons. 

Another  missionary  qualification  of  our  news- 
paper friend  was  politeness  ;  and  the  poor  man 
was  sent  to  sliine  in  courts,  to  meet  and  con- 
verse with  embassadors,  etc.  For  that  portrait 
sat  the  late  Dr.  D wight,  of  Constantinople,  who, 
besides  being  an  admirable  missionary,  was  able 
thus  to  sliine  among  the  great.  But  some  of 
us,  who  Ikivo  s|)cnl  hali"  a  score  of  years  in  ihe 

21 


316  TEN    YEARS   ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

field,  have  not  seen  any  embassador  yet,  except 
our  own,  who  are  usually  plain,  common-sense 
republicans  like  ourselves.  If  obliged  to  sit  for 
that  newspaper  portrait,  not  only  a  majority  of 
the  missionaries,  but  perhaps  some  embassadors 
with  them,  would  be  obliged  to  come  home. 

More  necessary  to  the  missionary  than  this 
polish  of  tlie  gentleman  is  that  trait  which  made 
a  good  old  woman  say  of  her  pastor,  —  "He's 
not  a  bit  of  a  gentleman.  -  Why,  he  can  come 
in  and  sit  down  by  the  wash-tub  of  such  as 
me  !  "  This  ability  to  feel  at  home,  as  an  em- 
bassador of  King  Jesus,  with  the  humblest  of 
his  disciples,  is  infinitely  better  than  any  mere 
external  polish,  which  may  or  may  not  be  a 
help  in  the  missionary  work,  in  which  kind 
feeling,  with  the  power  of  manifesting  it,  is  the 
essential  thing,  so  far  as  winning  men  is  con- 
serned. 

Wrote  a  missionary,  years  ago,  —  "Let  no 
man  come  to  India  who  can  not  spend  three 
hours  daily  in  heavenly  meditation  and  prayer, 
and  enjoy  it."  To  which  we  may  reply.  Lot 
no  one  call  himself  a  disciple  of  Clirist,  at  all, 


THE   FOUR    WANTS.  317 

who  wouldn't  "  enjoy  "  lieavenlj  meditation  all 
day  long,  if  allowable,  and  who  doesn't  love  to 
"  pray  always."  Wo  may  add,  too,  Let  no 
man  come  to  eastern  Turkey  wlio,  with  the 
constant  call  for  active  Clu-istian  labor  pressing 
upon  him,  could  find  leisure  to  spend  so  much 
time  in  devotional  exercises.  Before  coming, 
let  him  take  lessons  from  the  Master,  and  learn 
to  be  at  times  so  "beside  himself"  with  cora- 
l)assionate  zeal  for  preaching  the  word  to  the 
])erishing  multitudes  as  to  deprive  himself  of 
his  meals  to  do  it,  and  find  the  needed  oppor- 
tunity for  prayer  only  by  night.  Let  him  learn 
to  i)ray  while  at  work,  as  well  as  before  and 
after  it.  In  this  way,  that  larger  portion  of 
time,  whicli  must  be  spent  among  men  in 
ciforts  to  do  them  good,  will  not  do  his  own 
soul  harm  by  separating  it  from  his  Saviour, 
wlio'm  he  met  in  the  closet,  but  rather  will  do 
him  good  by  tliat  actual  experience  of  his  pres- 
ence and  aid  wliich  was  there  souglit. 

One  quality,  not  specified  by  tlie  n(  wspapcr 
before  alluded  to,  as  necessary  to  the  mission- 
ary, but  which  can  not  bo   dispensed  with,  is 


318  TEN    YEARS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

CO  nmon  sense,  as  opposed  on  one  side  to  all 
mere  dreaming,  and  on  the  other  to  tliat  un- 
practical make  which  is  ever  preventing  some 
imfortunatcs  from  calling  things  l)y  their  right 
names,  and  taking  them  by  the  handle.  It 
hardly  need  be  said  that  a  brief  experience  of 
actual  missionary  life  will  be  a  sufficient  cure 
for  any  amount  of  school-girl  romancing.  It 
is  also  true  that  a  mere  student  of  theory  ratlier 
than  practice — •  one  wlio  is  ever  trying  to  see 
things,  not  as  they  are,  but  as  they  should  be  — 
were  far  better  employed  in  liis  study  or  studio 
at  home  than  amid  the  sometimes  intensely 
practical  realities  of  missionary  experience. 

There  must  be,  too,  none  of  that  scrupulous 
precision,  that  sensitive  and  fastidious  nicety  of 
taste,  which,  if  not  incompatible  with  common 
sense,  is  seldom  found  in  union  with  it.  To 
speak  of  nothing  else,  the  man  who  has  this 
can  never  gain  a  practical  knowledge  of  the 
language  of  the  people.  The  inevitable  pros- 
pect of  using  a  word  now  and  then  in  some 
other  than  the  approved  sense,  and  sometimes 
of  exciting  the  risil)ilities  of  his  hearers,  would 


TUE   FOUR    WANTS.  319 

make  the  fastidious  man,  unless  he  bo  a  liu- 
guistic  prodigy,  so  slow  in  acquiring  the  ase  of 
tlioir  tongue  as  to  leave  the  heathen  to  perish 
before  he  could  speak  to  them  of  Jeiius. 

If  under  the  term  common  sense  is  not  in- 
cluded that  knowledge  of  human  nature  which 
is  another  essential  missionary  qualification,  it 
may  at  least  be  said  that  the  Avant  of  this 
knowledge  seems  often  to  be  a  result  of  that 
unpractical  theorizing  which  dooms  a  man  to 
be  the  victim  of  each  new  deceiver,  because, 
instead  of  looking  at  tilings  and  men  as  they 
are,  and  he  has  seen  them  to  be,  he  persists  in 
accepting  each  new-comer's  statement  of  them. 
If  the  poor  man  has  in  the  abstract  a  knowl- 
edge of  human  nature,  and  the  power  to  read 
character,  he  is  seldom  able  to  use  his  reading 
in  a  practical  way,  and  thus,  while  knowing 
men,  he  is  as  if  he  knew  them  not.  The  mis- 
sionary who,  by  a  want  of  this  necessary  gift  of 
discerning  spirits,  should  gain  among  the  peo- 
ple a  reputation  as  wanting  in  practif  al  shrewd- 
ness, would  soon  be  the  victim  of  a  sorry  lot  of 
converts. 


320  TEN    YEAUS   ON   THE    EUPHRATES. 

It  is  hardly  nejessary  to  say  that  two  otlicr 
qualities  needed  are  courage  and  firmness  of 
purpose.  Without  the  former,  the  missionary 
would  often  lack  the  power  to  meet  the  emer- 
gencies which  arise  in  the  radical  work  of  un- 
dermining old  institutions  and  estahlishing  new 
ones,  which  he  is  sent  to  do,  and  would  settle 
down  into  that  most  unfortunate  of  misplaced 
men,  —  a  missionary  victim  of  conservative 
timidity. 

Without  firmness,  or,  I  may  rather  say,  with- 
out inflexible  adhesion  of  purpose  in  essentials, 
enabling  him  to  fix  upon  a  j)lan  of  campaign, 
and,  come  what  may,  to  carry  it  out  in  all  es- 
sential particulars,  the  missionary  might  dis- 
play talent  at  ditching,  and  changing  base,  bnt 
could  never  capture  the  strongholds  of  the  en- 
emy. The  way  to  these  can  be  opened  only  by 
a  stubborn  and  courageous  adhesion  to  the  gos- 
pel  base  and  plan  of  campaign. 

It  can  not  be  denied,  that,  in  deciding  wliat 
persons  should  go  to  the  foreign  field,  multi- 
tudes look  at  the  question  from  a  wrong  stand- 
point.    Some  have  felt  that  every  man  should 


THE  FOUR    WANTS.  321 

go  wlio  desires  to  consecrate  himself  lo  the 
work.  As  well  might  we  say,  that,  in  carrying 
on  that  other  campaign  against  the  powers  of 
evil,  President  Lincoln  should  have  appointed 
as  general  any  one  who  felt  called  to  consecrate 
himself  to  the  labors  of  that  office. 

If,  indeed,  a  too  common  idea  of  the  mission- 
ary work  were  the  right  one,  —  if  missionaries 
were  men  called  to  do  the  comparatively  small 
work  of  the  pastorate  among  little  companies 
of  converted  heathen,  — then  might  almost  any 
one  consecrate  himself  to  it;  ll\eu  miglit  the 
churches  give  to  this  work  those  supposed  to  be 
unequal  to  the  demands  of  the  home  fielc'. 
But,  since  this  is  not  the  case,  since  men  ere 
wanted,  not  to  be  mere  captains  of  companies  in 
the  Lord's  host,  and  that  too  where  there  are 
plenty  of  people  to  set  them  right  when  going 
wrong,  but  rather  men  able  to  go  alone  and 
win  back  revolted  subjects  of  King  Jesus  to 
their  allegiance,  teach  them  to  be  soldiers  in  his 
service,  choose,  appoint,  and  train  the  captains 
and  other  officers,  and,  having  thus  prepared 
and  d'sciplined  an  army  loyal  to  Christ,  to  lead 


322  TEN    YEARS    ON    THE    FAJ I'iJIlA  J'lCS. 

it  on  to  conflict,  and,  liaving  won  t'fic  victory, 
and  put  down  the  rebellion,  to  do  tlio  work  of 
reconstruction  upon  the  basis  of  Christian  loy- 
alty ;  in  other  words,  since  the  missionary 
work  is  a  campaign^  and  that  an  apostolic  one, 
then  is  the  call  riglitfully  made  upon  the  church 
to  consecrate  to  it  her  choicest  sons  and  daugh- 
ters, the  men  and  the  women  whose  absence 
will  be  felt  at  home,  and  felt  ahroad  too  in  the 
accession  of  strength  which  they  bring  to  the 
missionary  force. 

The  men  who  "  can  be  spared  "  are  not  the 
ones  wanted  on  missionary  ground  ;  l>ut  the 
demand  is  that  the  church  make  the  missionary 
work  her  "  first-class  "  work,  giving  to  it  her 
choicest  men.  Not  necessarily  those  who  are 
the  greatest  scholars,  —  such  are  often  scholars 
merely,  good  only  for  accumulating  stores  of 
learning,  —  but  the  men  who,  with  warm,  lov- 
ing Christian  hearts,  have  the  power  to  make 
their  thoughts  and  feelings  known  to  others ; 
men  who  can  communicate ;  men  of  earnest 
purpose  and  magnetic  force  of  character,  who 


THE   FOUR    WANTS.  'Vl^ 

can    not   liclp  making  their  influence   felt  by 
those  with  whom  they  come  in  contact. 

Never  before  was  the  call  so  loud  as  now  foi 
such  men  to  enter  the  foreign  field  ;  and,  not- 
withstanding the  home  call  so  often  pleaded  as 
an  excuse  for  staying  here,  it  can  not  be 
doubted  that  the  marching  orders  to  "  go  "  are 
still  in  force  for  all  who  are  fitted  for  the  for- 
eign field.  It  is  a  fatal  error  which  takes  it  for 
granted  that  all  are  to  stay  who  are  not  in 
some  special  way  called  to  go.  At  bottom  of 
this  lies  that  other  idea,  iinsustained  alike  by 
reason  and  revelation,  that  God  proposes  to 
finish  up  his  work  in  America  before  beginning 
it  elsewhere.  Some  good  people,  in  their  over- 
weening estimate  of  tlie  importance  of  our 
country,  seem  to  suppose  that  God  has  decided 
to  make  his  home  here,  to  expend  here  the 
efforts  and  contributions  of  the  churches  in 
fitting  up  a  drawing-room,  with  its  costly  array 
of  furniture,  and  in  wdiicli  they,  poor,  selfish 
souls,  propose  to  enjoy  themselves,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  perishing,  to  whom  the  Master 
bids  us  give  his  gospel.     Already  has  he  begun 


324  TEN    YEARS   ON   THE   EUPIIIiATES. 

to  dissipate  these  visions  of  pious  and  luxuri- 
ous selfislmess,  and  compel  us  to  see  tliat  the 
best  way  to  prepare  to  receive  him  is  to  labor 
to  save  those  for  whom  he  shed  his  blood.  As 
if  it  were  not  enough  that  the  man  of  sin  has 
invaded  and  threatens  to  subdue  our  country 
and  rule  it  for  himself,  a  highway  has  been 
opened  across  the  ocean  to  neglected  China, 
and  thousands  of  her  idolatrous  population, 
soon  to  be  increased  to  millions,  are  bringing 
their  temples  and  gods  to  invade  the  land,  and 
to  possess  it  too,  unless  tlie  tardy,  sleeping 
church  awake  to  the'duty  of  meeting  the  enemy 
on  his  own  ground.  They  are  much  mistaken 
who  suppose  that  the  work  of  evangelizing  the 
Chinese  can  be  best  done  lierc  on  our  own  soil. 
It  should  be  remembered,  that,  whatever  they 
may  do  in  the  future,  they  do  not  now,  like  the 
Irish,  come  to  make  their  homes  here  ;  but,  with 
all  their  home  associations  and  attacliments 
still  fresh  and  strong,  come  prepared  to  cling, 
in  their  temporary  exile,  with  still  greater  tena- 
city to  their  ancestral  faith,  and  —  having  seen, 
not  the  excellencies  of  our  Christian  system, 


THE   FOUR    WANTS.  325 

but  rather  tlie  vices  which,  in  spite  of  it,  still 
dishonor  our  land  -to  go  back  more  inaccessi- 
ble than  before  to  Christian  influence.  Wlien 
in  Turkey  we  meet  a  man  who  has  traveled  in 
Christian  countries,  we  find  one  who  is  almost 
surely  so  prejudiced  against  the  truth,  or  its 
professed  adlierents,  as  to  be  inaccessible  to  us  ; 
and  we  may  expect  tliat  the  same  will  be  true 
in  China.  If,  tlien,  we  would  evangelize  that 
land,  we  must  sow  the  good  seed  in  its  own 
soil. 

Not  irai)robal)ly,  the  apostle  James,  by  some 
such  course  of  reasoning,  justified  himself  in 
settling  down  in  the  home  work,  accepting  a 
call  to  the  Jerusalem  pastorate,  when  the  Mas- 
ter had  told  him  and  his  fellows  only  to  "  tarry 
there  till  they  should  be  endued  with  power 
from  on  high  "  for  the  missionary  work.  lie 
hoped,  doubtless,  to  exert  a  great  influence  for 
good  over  the  Jews,  and  others  who  crowded 
animallyfrom  foreign  lands  to  the  mother  city. 
But,  instead,  we  find  that  "  certain  came  from 
James,"  and  entangled  Peter  and  l>ariiabas  in 
the  net  of  tl  eir  Jewish  com[)romiscs,  wliilc  his 


326  TEN    YEARS    ON    THE   EUPHRATES. 

cliurch-members  everywlicro  dogged  Paul's 
steps,  in  tlie  interest  of  the  ceremonial  law  ;  and 
at  length  the  influential  home  pastor  persuades 
even  the  great  apostle  to  the  Gentiles  himself 
into  a  politic  compromise  to  secure  peace, 
which  results  in  sending  him  a  prisoner  from 
Jerusalem  to  Csesarea,  and  thence  to  Rome,  and 
in  closing  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 

How  much  different  might  have  been  the 
history  of  James  and  of  the  Christian  church, 
had  he  gone  elsewhere  to  do  the  work  which 
the  Master  gave  him  !  And  may  we  not  say. 
How  much  different  would  be  the  "history  of 
the  church  of  this  age,  and  of  some  Jameses  and 
Jonahs  in  it,  if,  instead  of  clingino-  to  tlie  liome 
altars  and  firesides,  and  seeking  for  jjlace  liere, 
in  what  is  too  largely  a  conflict  between  Chris- 
tians of  different  names, — if,  instead  of  waiting 
for  calls  to  city  pulpits  and  professorial  chairs 
here  at  home,  they  would  heed  the  Master's 
command  to  go  and  give  his  gospel  to  the  mil- 
lions who  have  not  yet  heard  his  name,  and 
plant  his  church  among  them. 

If  the  views   presented  in  these   pages  are 


TUE   FOUR    WANTS.  327 

correct,  the  work  of  foreign  missions  differs  in 
some  important  particulars  from  what  it  is 
commonly  supposed  to  be.  Its  aim  is  not  to 
convert  the  world,  but  to  evangelize  it ;  not  to 
finish  Christian  work  on  missionary  ground, 
but  to  hogln  it  under  such  conditions  as,  by  the 
divine  blessing,  will  insure  its  progress  and  ulti- 
mate triumph.  The  work  of  the  missionary  is 
a  primary,  fundamental  one.  He  is  to  deposit 
the  germs  of  Christian  institutions  for  future 
development,  to  set  in  operation  forces  wliicl. 
will  go  on  ever  repeating  and  enlarging  them- 
selves through  successive  generations,  till  tlie 
millennial  day  sliall  come,  in  the  universal  and 
perfect  development  of  the  Christian  system. 
Nor  is  the  work  one  of  mere  ftxitli.  These 
pages  have  shown  that  great  results  may  be 
speedily  seen. 

While,  then,  the  work  affords  opportunity 
for  more  foresight,  for  a  greater  scope  of 
thought  and  effort,  than  is  generally  supposed, 
it  gives,  also,  promise  of  richer  and  more  speedy 
fruits  than  arc  commonly  articipated. 

Not  many  years  of  labor  are  demanded  for  a 


328  TEN    YEARS   ON    THE   EUPHRATES. 

man,  by  use  of  native  agency,  to  repeat  and 
increase  his  influence  many  fold.  One  result 
of  missionary  effort  in  the  Harpoot  field  has 
been  to  put  seventy-eight  persons  at  work  in 
different  departments  of  Christian  labor,  and 
the  number  is  rapidly  increasing,  all  busy  in 
effective  efforts  to  elevate  and  save  the  commu- 
nity. The  number  of  native  helpers  thus  at 
work  in  the  mission  to  eastern  Turkey  is  one 
hundred  and  seventeen. 

The  mechanics  of  Chicago  have  shown  us 
how  a  city  may  be  lifted  from  its  place  to  a 
higher  level ;  entire  granite  blocks,  with  all 
their  Ijusy  hum  of  industry  undisturbed,  rising 
slowly  and  almost  imperceptildy  into  the  air. 
Unseen  beneath  all,  the  engineer  has  bedded 
liis  thousands  of  screws,  which,  at  his  whistle's 
shrill  signal,  are  turned  together  to  lift  the 
weighty  pile  surely  to  its  place.  The  mission- 
ary who  does  merely  a  personal,  pastoral  work 
turns  a  single  screw,  and  by  it  may  break  off 
and  raise  a  fragment  of  society  ;  but  he  who 
follows  the  apostolic  plan  ))ccomes  a  master 
workman,  one  who  fixes  and   niiuis  liis  multi- 


THE    FOUR    WANTS.  329 

|.lied  forces  beneath  all  the  social  fabric,  and,  at 
the  signal  of  the  gospel  trumpet,  puts  them  all 
at  work,  slowly  but  surely  doing  their  appoint- 
ed task  of  lifting  the  mass  about  him,  from  the 
depths  of  ignorance  and  spiritual  deatli,  to  in- 
telligence and  Christian  life,  with  all  their  kin- 
dred blessings. 

In  chapters  ninth  and  tenth  I  have  partially 
shown  how  this  work  of  intellectual,  moral, 
and  religious  elevation  is  going  on  in  tlie  Har- 
poot  mission-field.  It  is  for  a  similar  but 
greater  work  in  other  stations  of  this  and 
other  missions  that  workmen  are  wanted. 

Shall  they  be  had,  or  shall  the  call  for  re- 
cruits to  take  the  places  of  those  who  have 
fallen  at  their  posts  in  such  service  still  be 
made  in  vain  ? 

"  Shall  we,  whose  souls  are  lighted 

By  wisiiom  from  on  high, 
Shall  we  to  men  bt^nighted 

The  \ixm\i  of  life  deny  ? 
Salvation!  oh,  salvation  ! 

The  joyful  sound  proclaim, 
Till  earth's  remotest  nation 

Has  learned  McHKiah's  name." 


330  TEN    YF.AUS    ON   THE   EUPHRATES. 

May  it  not  be  that,  when  the  millennial  day 
sliall  come,  all  the  glorified  saints  in  heaven 
will  unite  with  Bisliop  Heber  in  singing  the 
"  Missionary  Hymn "  in  some  such  form  as 
this?  — 

"  From  Greenland's  icy  mountains, 

From  India's  coral  strand. 
Where  Afric's  sunny  fountains 

Rolled  down  their  golden  sand; 
From  many  an  ancient  river. 

From  many  a  palmy  jDlain, 
They  called  us  to  deliver 

Their  land  from  error's  chain. 

"  Then  we,  whose  souls  were  lighted 

By  wisdom  from  on  high. 
Did  not  to  men  benighted 

The  lamp  of  life  deny. 
Salvation  !  oh,  salvation  ! 

The  joyful  sound  proclaim. 
For  earth's  remotest  nation 

Has  learned  Messiah's  name." 

If  indeed  it  be  thus  sung,  will  not  some 
voices  be  silent  then  ? 


THE     END. 


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